ATLANTA — Younghoe Koo kicked a 58-yard field goal with two seconds remaining and the Atlanta Falcons rallied for a 26-24 victory over the New Orleans Saints without scoring an offensive touchdown Sunday.
Koo kicked four field goals in all, also connecting from 53, 44 and 42 yards to give the Falcons (2-2) a desperately needed home victory.
They had lost their first two games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and seemed on the verge of falling to 0-3 in Atlanta when Alvin Kamara scored on a 1-yard run with a minute remaining to push the Saints (2-2) to a 24-23 lead.
A 30-yard pass interference penalty on Paulson Adebo gave the Falcons hope at the New Orleans 40. Kirk Cousins threw three straight incompletions, but it didn’t matter.
Koo knocked down the longest field goal in the stadium’s seven-year history with plenty to spare, sending the Saints to their second straight close loss after two dominating victories to open the season.
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VIKINGS 31, PACKERS 29
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Sam Darnold threw three touchdown passes and Jordan Addison scored twice as the Minnesota Vikings built an early 28-point lead and hung on down the stretch to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-29 on Sunday.
The Vikings (4-0) are off to their best start since 2016 when they won their first five games before slumping to an 8-8 finish. They have trailed for less than 3 1/2 minutes all season.
Minnesota spoiled the return of Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who returned after missing two games with an injured left medial collateral ligament. He threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns, both career highs. But he also matched a career-high with three interceptions while going 32 of 54.
Jayden Reed had seven receptions for 139 yards and a touchdown for the Packers (2-2).
Green Bay got within 31-29 on Dontayvion Wicks’ second fourth-quarter touchdown catch — a 17-yarder with 56 seconds left. Minnesota’s Josh Oliver recovered Daniel Whelan’s ensuing onside kick — it actually was a drop kick — to secure the victory.
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BEARS 24, RAMS 18
CHICAGO — Caleb Williams led four scoring drives, D’Andre Swift had 165 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown, and the Chicago Bears held off the Los Angeles Rams 24-18 on Sunday.
Jaquan Brisker intercepted Matthew Stafford with about a minute remaining after the Bears punted on the previous play, helping Chicago (2-2) end a two-game skid.
Williams threw for 157 yards and a touchdown after setting a Bears rookie record by passing for 363 yards at Indianapolis last week. The No. 1 overall draft pick and former Heisman Trophy winner out of Southern California was 17 of 23 with a 9-yard TD pass to DJ Moore in the third quarter.
Swift had his best game since signing with the Bears in March. A Pro Bowler with Philadelphia last season, he broke off a 36-yard touchdown run that made it 24-15 in the fourth quarter. He finished with 16 rushes for 93 yards and seven catches for 72 yards.
The Bears won for the first time since beating Tennessee in Week 1 and snapped a three-game skid against the Rams (1-3), who were coming off a fourth-quarter rally to beat San Francisco.
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COLTS 27, STEELERS 24
INDIANAPOLIS — Joe Flacco threw two touchdown passes in relief of the injured Anthony Richardson, and the Indianapolis Colts came up with a stop in the final minute to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24 on Sunday.
Indy (2-2) has won two straight since opening the season with back-to-back losses — and two straight against Pittsburgh.
The Steelers (3-1) fought back from a 17-0 deficit but fell just short of extending their six-game regular-season winning streak. Pittsburgh’s top-ranked defence allowed a season-high point total.
Justin Fields ran for two second-half scores and threw for another to cut the deficit to 27-24 with 3:40 to go. But the Steelers turned the ball over on downs when they couldn’t recover from a botched snap that resulted in a 12-yard loss with less than two minutes to play.
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BUCCANEERS 33, EAGLES 16
TAMPA, Fla. — Baker Mayfield threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns, while Mike Evans became the Buccaneers’ career scoring leader Sunday during Tampa Bay’s 33-16 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Mayfield, who completed 30 of 47 passes without an interception, also ran for a TD in helping the Bucs (3-1) dominate the rematch of a lopsided NFC wild-card game they won against the Eagles (2-2) last January.
Rebounding from a poor performance in a loss to Denver the previous week, Mayfield and the offence scored a touchdown on its opening possession for the first time in 21 games. Evans’ 2-yard scoring reception finished a 10-play, 79-yard drive that set the tone for the Bucs, who outgained the Eagles 254 yards to zero in building a 24-0 lead.
Evans, who finished with eight receptions for 94 yards, moved ahead of Martin Gramatica (592) into first place on Tampa Bay’s scoring list with 596. Mayfield also threw a first-quarter TD pass to Trey Palmer and scored on a 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal to make it 21-0 early in the second quarter.
The Bucs held a 287-67 edge in yardage at halftime, with most of Philadelphia’s offence coming on a 14-play drive that Jalen Hurts finished with a 1-yard TD throw to Parris Campbell.
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BRONCOS 10, JETS 9
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Bo Nix threw his first NFL touchdown and the Denver Broncos overcame a miserable first half on offence and held on to beat a banged-up Aaron Rodgers and the sloppy New York Jets 10-9 in a defensive standoff on a rainy Sunday.
Rodgers came up limping a bit after a sack late in the fourth quarter and seemed to be favouring his left leg — the same on which his Achilles tendon was surgically repaired last year. Trainers looked at him on the sideline.
Rodgers came back on the Jets’ next possession with 2:31 remaining but couldn’t get anything going. Facing fourth-and-10 on New York’s 45, Rodgers was sacked from behind by a blitzing P.J. Locke to give the Broncos the ball at the 35.
The defence came up big, New York (2-2) used all three of its timeouts, and the Broncos’ drive ended with Wil Lutz pushing a 50-yarder wide left, giving the Jets one last chance.
New York got down to the Broncos’ 32 and after an incompletion from Rodgers to Mike Williams with 51 seconds left, Greg Zuerlein lined up for a potential winning kick — but his 50-yarder curved to the right and Nix and the Broncos (2-2) were able to kneel down for the victory.
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TEXANS 24, JAGUARS 20
HOUSTON — C.J. Stroud threw for 345 yards and two touchdowns, capped by a 1-yard pass to Dare Ogunbowale with 18 seconds left, to give the Houston Texans a 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Houston forced a three-and-out to get the ball back with less than three minutes to go.
Stroud then led a nine-play, 69-yard drive to give the Texans (3-1) their first points of the second half and survive a scare by the winless Jaguars (0-4).
The Texans bounced back from a 34-7 rout at Minnesota to get the victory despite fumbling a punt return early and committing 12 penalties to give them 35 combined in their past three games.
Nico Collins helped Houston to the win with 12 receptions for 151 yards and a TD for his third 100-yard game this season.
Trevor Lawrence threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns as his streak of consecutive starts without a win stretched to nine games.
The Jaguars fell to 0-4 for the first time since opening the 2021 season with five straight losses.
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BENGALS 34, PANTHERS 24
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joe Burrow threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, Chase Brown ran for 80 yards and two scores and the Cincinnati Bengals held on to beat the Carolina Panthers 34-24 on Sunday for their first win of the season.
Ja’Marr Chase had three catches for 85 yards, including a 63-yard catch-and-run touchdown as the Bengals avoided a potentially disastrous fourth straight loss to open the season. Of the 155 teams to start 0-4 since the merger, only the 1992 Chargers were able to rebound and make the playoffs.
Zack Moss had 78 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown reception for the Bengals (1-3).
Andy Dalton threw for 220 yards with two touchdowns and one interception against his former team, but couldn’t quite match the magic he displayed in his first start a week ago when he led the Panthers to a 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Chuba Hubbard ran for 104 yards and a touchdown and Diontae Johnson had seven catches for 83 yards and a score for Carolina (1-3), which fell to 0-2 at home.
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