Football

Buffalo’s offense exploded against Seattle, the Ravens and the Chiefs held on for wins, the Steelers improved to 8-0 and the Saints humiliated the Buccaneers. More

John Harbaugh’s paternal grandfather, Bill, was an awful driver, and as a tumultuous week dawned for the Baltimore Ravens, the coach felt compelled to share as much with his players.His grandfather, Harbaugh told them, couldn’t pull in or out of the garage without scraping the paint or battering the wood. When it was gently mentioned that his car lacked a rearview mirror, Bill huffed an explanation: “I don’t need to know where I’m coming from. I need to know where I’m going.”The Ravens’ convictions are cloaked by a sort of blind faith, the expectation that they can summon a critical play, an efficient drive or a dominant half of football when they need to simply because they can — because they know where they are going. As their season teetered on Sunday, the Ravens mustered all three in a second-half reversal that dazed the Indianapolis Colts.For Baltimore, the result — a 24-10 victory — mattered greatly. The win, after a last-second loss to its A.F.C. North rival Pittsburgh last week, reasserted the Ravens’ presence as a contender in the rugged conference and impeded the path of the Colts (5-3) in the playoff chase. But from the Ravens’ perspective, how they managed to win Sunday mattered just as much.“They understood the gravity of the win,” Harbaugh said. “They understood how tough that win was.”It was tough because the Ravens played without two starting offensive linemen who were hurt last week; the All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week; and the Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell, who left early in the first quarter with a calf injury. It was tough because in the first half, the Colts stymied quarterback Lamar Jackson and the league’s most productive running offense like no other team had this season, holding Baltimore to 18 rushing yards. And it was tough because the Ravens, for all their offensive dynamism and defensive might, had lost 20 straight games when down at halftime.When Baltimore (6-2) ran onto the field for the second half Sunday, after it had scored a defensive touchdown to trail, 10-7, it faced the fulcrum of its season: A second consecutive loss could have shoved the Ravens three games behind the Steelers in the division and reinforced the belief that Jackson beats only inferior teams, a notion propagated by the Ravens’ playoff loss to Tennessee last season and perpetuated by defeats this year to Pittsburgh and Kansas City.After a drive in which the Ravens fumbled on first-and-goal from the Colts’ 3-yard line, the game turned four minutes into the second half on an Indianapolis pass that was initially ruled incomplete. But Harbaugh challenged the call, believing that cornerback Marcus Peters, who caught the ball while backpedaling, held on to it long enough to establish possession before it was dislodged. The call was overturned — Peters was adjudged to have controlled it and taken three steps — and after regaining possession, Baltimore recalibrated.By picking up the tempo, the Ravens reduced the efficacy of Indianapolis’s sideline-to-sideline speed. They scored touchdowns on consecutive drives, on a 1-yard run by Gus Edwards and a 9-yard keeper from Jackson on a series that had been extended by J.K. Dobbins’s 4-yard run on fourth-and-3 from the Indianapolis 43.“That’s a tough one to pull the trigger on,” Harbaugh said, but he trusted the play, and he trusted Jackson to make the proper read.The natural inclination is to presume that a player like Jackson, after smashing records and bamboozling defenses and collecting awards, continues ascending at a steady, deadly rate. That his off-season represented a tantalizing respite between M.V.P. seasons, and that in every game he further redefines a position already bent to his will.Except that a player’s development is rarely linear. Quarterbacks, especially. Jackson remains as elusive as ever, but his passing proficiency has waned. Entering Sunday, he had completed less than 60 percent of his throws in four of his previous five games, and he was coming off throwing two interceptions as part of a four-turnover day against Pittsburgh.Against the Colts, Jackson completed all 10 second-half passes — “just keeping it going,” he said — to finish 19 of 23 for 170 yards. He also ran for 58 yards, regrouping after a dismal first quarter, when Baltimore failed to net even a single rushing yard. In the second quarter, the Ravens completed a miserable trifecta — stuffed run, sack, holding penalty — to encounter a third-and-35. The totality of the carnage represented the Ravens’ worst offensive first-half showing since their playoff loss to Tennessee. If not for Chuck Clark’s fumble return for a touchdown, Baltimore wouldn’t have scored at all.But then Baltimore shut out Indianapolis in the second half and Matthew Judon all but extinguished the Colts’ hopes by hitting Philip Rivers to force an incompletion on fourth-and-1 from the Baltimore 16 with 5 minutes 34 seconds remaining. The Ravens gathered in a jubilant locker room, where their general manager, Eric DeCosta, used the word “fortitude” to describe Sunday’s win.At the midway point of their season, the Ravens are positioned well. They are within reach of Pittsburgh. They’re still among the best teams in the N.F.L. They know where they are coming from, and they like where they are going. More

The N.F.L. has fined the Las Vegas Raiders $500,000 and their head coach, Jon Gruden, an additional $150,000 and has taken away a late-round draft pick next year because of repeated violations of the league’s coronavirus protocols, according to a league employee who was not authorized to discuss the penalties publicly.The team, which had already been fined for violations earlier in the season, is likely to appeal the latest penalties, the employee said.Thursday’s fines and the loss of a draft pick were by far the strongest punishment yet against an N.F.L. team, as the league has tried to push through a season while the coronavirus continues to rage in many areas of the country.The N.F.L. has increased the restrictions on where and how players, coaches and staff members can move around in and outside team facilities, and it warned teams last month that violations would result in increasingly stiffer penalties, including the loss of draft picks and potentially the forfeiting of games.The Tennessee Titans have had the worst outbreak in the league, with at least two dozen players, coaches and staff members testing positive in a period that forced the postponement of two games and required a half-dozen other teams to juggle their schedules. The league fined the Titans $350,000 for their handling of the outbreak. But it did not take away any draft picks. Last month, Gruden was fined $100,000 and the team was fined $250,000 because the coach had not worn his face covering properly on the sideline during a game. The team was also fined $50,000 for allowing an unauthorized visitor in the locker room.Individual players were fined after 10 Raiders, including the team’s star quarterback, Derek Carr, attended a charity event in a crowded indoor venue without wearing masks.Raiders offensive lineman Trent Brown was put back on the reserve/Covid-19 list for a second time on Thursday because of ongoing complications related to the coronavirus. He was first placed on the list Oct. 21 after he tested positive. The Raiders then sent home the rest of their starting offensive linemen because they had been in contract with Brown.Yahoo first reported news of the Raiders’ latest penalties. More

Those quarterbacks, as well as Philip Rivers, are showing signs of wear and tear but still thriving in the twilight of their careers. They have the Steelers, Saints, Buccaneers and Colts on course to make the playoffs. More

With victory assured, Brady smirked. It was most certainly not a smile, nor was it a grin. Call it a knowing snicker. More

The scramble among the Kansas City Chiefs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens for supremacy of the American Football Conference has dominated the headlines as the N.F.L. reaches its halfway point, and for good reason: Combined, they are 19-3, with the Steelers the last remaining undefeated team.The National Football Conference is a very different picture, with the N.F.C. East composed entirely of losing teams. Across the country, though, the N.F.C. West is the league’s most competitive division, and superiority there has been decisively seized by the Seattle Seahawks, led by quarterback Russell Wilson, who may finally be on track to win his first Most Valuable Player Award.With a 37-27 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, the defending conference champions, on Sunday, the Seahawks improved to 6-1 for the second time in franchise history, and the first time since 2013, the season they won their only Super Bowl title. The Seahawks are atop the league’s toughest division and have established themselves as the class of the conference.Despite making it to six Pro Bowls, steering the Seahawks to the postseason seven times in his nine-year career and never missing a game, Wilson has never been in the running for an M.V.P. Award.This season may be different. His four touchdown passes on Sunday gave him 26 for the year, first in the league, ahead of Patrick Mahomes’s 21 and one short of Tom Brady’s record for most passing scores through seven games. Wilson leads the league in quarterback rating, is just behind Mahomes in the key adjusted yards per pass statistic and ranks in the top five in completion percentage and yards passing. His 71.5 percent completion rate and 307 yards passing per game are career highs.“I just keep swinging,” Wilson said of his bounce-back performance against the 49ers.Wilson has never had a single vote for the M.V.P. Award in his eight previous seasons. But his 26 touchdown passes are already more than the totals of 10 other quarterbacks who have been named M.V.P. since 1970.Wilson has been nothing if not consistent. He is 92-42-1 as a starter, 32-8 in games after a loss. After their first loss of the season last week, in which Wilson threw three interceptions against the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks seemed eager to come out strong on Sunday. Wilson found his new favorite wide receiver, D.K. Metcalf, early and often.On his first score, a 46-yard catch-and-run, Metcalf showed the speed and elusiveness that have made him one of the league’s best receivers. After catching the ball on the left side, he sliced across the field, raced past 49ers defenders, then sprinted down the right sideline and into the end zone.Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll likes his toughness. “When he caught the ball on the crossing route, I was screaming they weren’t going to get him,” he said.The slick score — Metcalf’s sixth of the year — also got rave reviews from LeBron James, who called the second-year receiver Baby Bron on Instagram. In a caption to a picture, James wrote, “We built different.”Metcalf is indeed different from most receivers. At 6-foot-4, he is both tall and fast. Several 49ers defensive backs bounced off him on Sunday, and two defenders were draped over him in the end zone when he caught his second touchdown of the game.As for the 49ers, maybe it is the Super Bowl hangover. Maybe the injuries, freakish or otherwise, have thrown them off track. Maybe their opponents have just gotten better at figuring them out. Whatever the reason, the team looks like a shell of the one that dominated the N.F.C. last year. The 49ers slipped to 4-4, good for only last place in the tough N.F.C. West.The gap between the teams seems to grow by the week. Seattle has the top-ranked offense in the league, which has managed to offset a defense that is giving up the most yards per game in the N.F.L. Like last year, the 49ers still have a stingy defense. But injuries have hurt the offense, including ones to wide receiver Deebo Samuel and to running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman, who left Sunday’s game with a knee injury.The Seahawks shut down the 49ers’ run game on Sunday and knocked out quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who aggravated an ankle injury, and tight end George Kittle, who left with an injured foot. The 49ers managed just 116 yards in the first half and turned over the ball twice. Most of their points and yardage came in the fourth quarter when Garoppolo’s backup, Nick Mullens, took over with the Seahawks ahead by 23 points.The 49ers continue an uneven season in which three of their four wins have come against the Giants, the Jets and the New England Patriots, who have combined for three wins this year. A rash of injuries has made it harder for the 49ers to compete against stronger teams. On defense, they are missing cornerback Richard Sherman, defensive linemen Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and Solomon Thomas, and safety Jaquiski Tartt, among others.Coach Kyle Shanahan said injuries were no excuse. “I don’t think we played good as a group,” he said on Sunday. “We’ve missed players a number of times and that’s not a reason to go out there and not play well.”With the N.F.L. adding one more playoff team in each conference this season, the 49ers are by no means out of the hunt for the postseason. But because they had such a successful season last year, their schedule is harder than in previous years. Their next four games are against the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints, the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills, who are 21-9 collectively.In what amounts to a silver lining in a difficult season, several 49ers said they were happy to be facing the Packers on Thursday instead of Sunday so they would not have time to dwell on their humbling loss to the Seahawks.“There’s definitely still a lot of fight left in this team,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. More

Dalvin Cook shredded the Packers, the Steelers stayed undefeated and Joe Burrow and the Bengals shocked Tennessee. More

Pittsburgh rallied from down 10 at the half to take a lead on Baltimore. That’s when Lamar Jackson and the Steelers’ defense collided. More