Raphael Stevens

ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott sustained a gruesome ankle injury not long after his first career touchdown catch before backup Andy Dalton led a drive to a field goal on the final play, and the Cowboys beat the winless Giants, 37-34, on Sunday.Michael Gallup made two spectacular sideline catches on throws from Dalton, the second a 38-yarder to the Giants’ 16-yard line. The Cowboys ran the clock down to 3 seconds, and Greg Zuerlein had his second game-ending kick of the season, from 34 yards.Prescott was going down in the arms of Giants defensive back Logan Ryan at the end of a 9-yard run in the third quarter when his right leg got caught under Ryan and appeared to snap.Prescott reached for the leg as he writhed in pain, and TV footage showed his right foot bent at an awkward angle away from his leg. He fought back tears as he was carted off with a cast on the leg. Most of Prescott’s teammates rushed to greet him, as did several members of the Giants, including Ryan and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who coached Prescott for four years in Dallas.The team said Prescott had a fracture-dislocation of the right ankle and was taken to a hospital, where surgery was planned late Sunday.Dalton was Cincinnati’s starter for nine seasons before the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow No. 1 over all last spring and Dalton signed a one-year deal to be Prescott’s backup.Dalton and rookie center Tyler Biadasz fumbled an exchange on Dalton’s first full series, setting up Devonta Freeman’s 4-yard scoring run and offensive tackle Andrew Thomas’s 2-point conversion catch to put the Giants ahead, 34-31.After Dallas got even and forced a Giants punt, Gallup made a toe-dragging 19-yard catch. Then Gallup made an over-the-shoulder grab with Dion Lewis running stride for stride. Both catches held up on review.The Cowboys (2-3), who trailed by two touchdowns in the second quarter for their fourth straight game with a double-digit deficit, extended their lead when Ezekiel Elliott ran in from 12 yards out to make it 31-23 three plays after Prescott’s injury. Elliott had 91 yards rushing and two touchdowns.It was the first game back in Dallas for Garrett, who was replaced by Mike McCarthy after the Cowboys missed the playoffs amid high expectations last season.Four years ago, Garrett chose to keep Prescott, then a rookie leading a franchise-best 11-game winning streak, as the starter over Tony Romo. Prescott, who replaced an injured Romo in the preseason, has started every game of his career.Garrett’s offense stopped a two-game streak without a touchdown by getting in the end zone on the Giants first possession with a 3-yard reverse to tight end Evan Engram.The Giants led, 17-3, in the second quarter — the fourth straight game with a double-digit deficit for the Cowboys — before the Cowboys went in front, 24-20, with 16 seconds left in the first half on Prescott’s 11-yard catch on a pass from receiver Cedrick Wilson, who took a reverse pitch from Elliott.At 0-5, the Giants will face the Washington Football team at home next Sunday in the second of three straight N.F.C. East games.The Cowboys, increased the size of the crowd at AT&T Stadium to 25,147 fans, an uptick in capacity for the third straight home game. More

The N.F.L. has indefinitely postponed Monday’s game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, the latest reshuffling of the league’s schedule to accommodate the rash of positive tests for the coronavirus.The league had already pushed back the game from Sunday to Monday after Stephon Gilmore, the team’s star defensive back, tested positive. The team returned to practice Saturday, but another presumptive positive test Sunday forced the league to act before the Broncos left Denver for Foxborough, Mass.The league has not said when or if the game will be made up. Because this week will now serve as the bye week for both teams, there are no other openings on their schedule unless other games are moved, or the league adds an additional week to the season for makeup games. The Patriots were originally scheduled for a bye in Week 6, and the Broncos had a bye in Week 8.The Tennessee Titans, who have been grappling with the biggest outbreak in the league, shut down their team facility on Sunday after another staff member tested positive, according to the NFL Network, throwing in doubt the team’s upcoming game against the Buffalo Bills, already pushed back to Tuesday.The Titans have reported two dozen positive cases among its players, coaches and staff members in the past several weeks. The league has already pushed the Titans-Steelers game back three weeks, to Oct. 25.The N.F.L. told teams this week they would risk severe penalties, including the loss of draft picks, stiff fines and potentially the forfeiture of games if they do not follow the league’s safety protocols. More

The Jets confirmed Friday that one of their players had tested positive for the coronavirus, and that all players had been sent home from the team’s facility as a precaution.The positive result throws into question whether the Jets will be able to play their next game, at home against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, and is the latest problem for the N.F.L. already scrambling to adjust for outbreaks on two other teams.The Jets are the latest N.F.L. team to have a player test positive, deepening the challenge the league faces as it tries to complete a full schedule of games. On Thursday, the league was forced to postpone two other games, the latest in a series of cascading readjustments in the wake of virus outbreaks involving the Tennessee Titans and the New England Patriots.The league announced on Thursday that the Titans — who have had the league’s worst outbreak, with nearly two dozen players, coaches and staff members testing positive — would play the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time, instead of on Sunday, assuming that the team reports no more positive tests. The Titans reported two additional positive tests in their organization on Thursday.If Tennessee and Buffalo play as now scheduled on Tuesday, the Bills’ following game, against the Kansas City Chiefs, would be moved back three days from Thursday, Oct. 15.The league had already postponed the Titans’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled for this past Sunday, by three weeks because of the Titans’ outbreak.The league also on Thursday moved the Patriots-Denver Broncos game, scheduled for Sunday, to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, after Stefon Gilmore, New England’s star cornerback, was reported yesterday to have tested positive. Last week, the Patriots’ Sunday game was moved to Monday because their quarterback, Cam Newton, had tested positive.This is a developing story and will be updated. More

The setting was familiar: Tom Brady, facing a long field and a short clock, and a chance to lead a fourth-quarter comeback.The result was not.Brady, who built his reputation for late-game heroics with dozens of fourth-quarter comebacks as the New England Patriots’ quarterback, appeared to lose track of downs while trying to lead another with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night. Instead of his 38th fourth-quarter comeback, Brady headed home from Chicago with a loss.The stage for a trademark Brady moment had been set. The Buccaneers took over the ball trailing the Bears by 20-19 with 1 minute 13 seconds left. After a quick short pass for a first down, Brady had the ball at his 37.Here’s what happened next.Brady threw a short incomplete pass intended for Mike Evans.He completed a pass for 4 yards to Ke’Shawn Vaughn.A short pass to Rob Gronkowski was incomplete.DeAndre Houston-Carson of the Bears broke up a pass intended for Cameron Brate.OK, did you count the downs there? Four, right?Brady apparently got three.A closeup TV shot of Brady just after the incomplete pass to Brate showed him looking to the sideline and holding up four fingers and appearing to mouth “fourth down.” Even though the Bucs had lost the ball on downs, Brady stayed on the field, apparently thinking he still had another play.Brady, 43, seemed frustrated after the series, throwing a clipboard and slamming his helmet. Asked afterward what had happened, Brady pivoted to the result of the play.And his coach, Bruce Arians, denied Brady had not realized it was fourth down. “Yeah, he knew, he knew,” Arians said.Brady focused instead on the play call. The fourth-down pass to Brate was an effort to get his team into field-goal range, rather than just grab the six yards needed for a first down. That, Brady acknowledged, was his mistake.“I knew we had to gain a chunk, so I should have been thinking more first down instead of chunk,” he said.Brady finished 25 for 41 for 253 yards and a touchdown.The Buccaneers and their newly signed legendary quarterback are still off to a good start, 3-2 and in first place in the NFC South. The Bears are a surprising 4-1, but have not quite established themselves as an elite team: Their wins are by 4, 4, 4, and 1 point, and before Thursday’s win their victories had come over the Lions, the Giants and the Falcons, teams that have only one win among them.The Bears’ starting quarterback, Mitch Trubisky, was benched in the middle of Game 3, despite the team’s 2-0 record at the time.That conveniently meant that his backup Nick Foles got to play against the Bucs. Foles’s only other meeting with Brady came in the Super Bowl in 2018, when he beat Brady and the Patriots to give the Philadelphia Eagles their only Super Bowl title.Foles finished Thursday night’s game 30 of 42 for 243 yards, one touchdown, one interception and no forgotten downs. More

For the second consecutive week, the N.F.L. has shuffled its schedule to accommodate teams that have had players and staff members who have tested positive for the coronavirus.The league announced on Thursday that the Tennessee Titans — who have had the league’s worst outbreak, with nearly two dozen players, coaches and staff members testing positive — would play the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time, instead of on Sunday, assuming that the team reports no more positive tests. The Titans reported two additional positive tests in their organization on Thursday.If Tennessee and Buffalo play as now scheduled on Tuesday, the Bills’ following game, against the Kansas City Chiefs, would be moved back three days from Thursday, Oct. 15.The league had already postponed the Titans’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled for this past Sunday, by three weeks because of the Titans’ outbreak.The league also on Thursday moved the New England Patriots-Denver Broncos game, scheduled for Sunday, to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, after Stefon Gilmore, New England’s star cornerback, was reported yesterday to have tested positive. Last week, the Patriots’ Sunday game was moved to Monday because their quarterback, Cam Newton, had tested positive.The postponements are part of the N.F.L.’s effort to manage confirmed infections, which it has said for months were expected to occur.This week, the N.F.L. said it would use video surveillance to ensure that players and coaches were wearing proper protective equipment at team facilities.The league is also investigating whether the Titans have violated league rules by working out after the club’s facility was shuttered because of the outbreak in the locker room. The team may be facing penalties that include fines and revoked draft picks. In the worst case, Tennessee could even be forced to forfeit a game.The league chose not to construct a closed community or a bubble — as the W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. did — for players and coaches to live in during the season, as a way to reduce the risk of infection.Instead, protocols were put in place to enforce physical distancing and other safety measures while the players and the team’s staff members were together. But at the end of each day, all team personnel are allowed to return home, increasing their chances of being exposed to the virus.This strategy relies on the avoidance of unnecessary risks by players, coaches and other team employees. The league has fined coaches tens of thousands of dollars for failing to wear face masks properly. Ten players on the Las Vegas Raiders have been fined as much as $30,000 each for attending an indoor charity event where most people, including the players, were not wearing masks.m. More

A weapons possession charge against Quinnen Williams, a defensive lineman for the Jets, stemming from the discovery of an unloaded gun in his baggage at La Guardia Airport has been dropped, his lawyer said on Monday.“This case was nothing more than a technical issue with the storing of the firearm, which is why the government gave Mr. Williams nothing more than a ticket,” the lawyer, Alex Spiro, said.A representative from the Queens district attorney’s office said Williams pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in satisfaction of all charges, paid a fine of $250 and forfeited the firearm.Williams, 22, was charged in March with a felony count of possession of a weapon after trying to board a flight at the airport.He was taken into custody at a Delta Air Lines check-in counter after he was found to have a Glock 19 pistol, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police said at the time. The gun, which was found in his checked baggage, was unloaded, officials said.The authorities said that Williams had a permit for the weapon in Alabama, where he was a standout player for the University of Alabama, but he did not have one for New York. His lawyer said Monday that he had been in the process of getting his permit in March.In March, Spiro said there was “allegedly a technical issue with the manner in which the lawfully owned firearm was stored.”Representatives for the Jets could not be immediately reached on Monday.Williams recorded 15 tackles and two and a half sacks in his rookie season. He signed a four-year, $32.5 million contract with the Jets, according to the salary tracking website Spotrac.Williams has an older brother, Quincy Williams, who plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars. More

The idea of “tests” in the N.F.L. is usually a figurative one — how will Team X respond to the test of So-and-So’s defense? Until this week, pro football had been blissfully unencumbered by the scrambling and rescheduling to deal with positive coronavirus tests that other leagues have dealt with.But in the wake of an outbreak among the Tennessee Titans organization, where upward of 12 members of personnel — including at least 9 players — returned positive tests, and Saturday’s news that Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and Jordan Ta’amu, a quarterback on the Chiefs practice squad, were added to their teams’ reserve/Covid-19 lists, the league has been busy remaking the schedule, testing players known to have been in contact with infected parties, and rethinking how it polices its coronavirus health protocols.The Patriots-Chiefs game, originally scheduled for Sunday is tentatively planned for Monday or Tuesday. The Titans, who were supposed to face the Steelers this week, will instead face Pittsburgh on Oct. 25.Despite the highly anticipated Cam Newton vs. Patrick Mahomes matchup being delayed, much of the N.F.L.’s Week 4 slate will go on, as scheduled. After Saints fullback Michael Burton tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, his re-test and a rapid test reportedly came back negative, keeping the New Orleans-Detroit game on pace to play. Elsewhere, the league’s unbeatens will try to stick with what’s working.Ranking the likelihood that teams can get to 4-0 on Sunday.With Tennessee and Pittsburgh inadvertently idle, Green Bay playing on Monday and Kansas City having to wait for their game until Monday or Tuesday, just three teams have a shot at improving to 4-0 on Sunday. Here is a ranking of the likelihood that each of them gets there.1. Seattle — The Seahawks are setting N.F.L. records on offense, and doing absolutely nothing to help on defense. It’s an issue as far as the team’s Super Bowl prospects, but it is unlikely to matter against Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Miami Dolphins (1-2), even on the road.2. Buffalo — The Bills have a lot to work out before they can truly be considered a contender, but quarterback Josh Allen is loving life with wide receiver Stefon Diggs. That dynamic duo gives the team a solid shot at victory in a road game against the Las Vegas Raiders (2-1), but Buffalo’s defense will need to play far better than it has this season if they want to continue their winning streak.3. Chicago — There is no reasonable explanation for the Bears being 3-0 other than luck. The team’s defense is not terrible, but it’s hardly good enough to make up for an offense in such turmoil that they had a quarterback controversy without ever losing a game. They are hosting the 2-1 Indianapolis Colts, and while anything is possible, Chicago won’t want to bank on the Colts simply handing them a victory like Detroit and Atlanta did. More