For the second time this season, Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard have more than 100 yards in the same game. Elliott has 117 yards and two touchdowns. Pollard has 131 yards after his 44-yard touchdown run. They accomplished the feat in the Week 3 win against Miami. It's the first time in team history the Cowboys have had two games with running backs going for more than 100 yards in the same season.
With such a big lead the Cowboys have been able to rest regulars on defense, like Sean Lee, Jeff Heath, Antwaun Woods and DeMarcus Lawrence, who have battled assorted injuries throughout the season. Perhaps a good sign going forward for the final two games.
After seeing Buffalo and Chicago score 25 and 24 unanswered points against them in back-to-back losses, the Cowboys scored 30 unanswered points against the Rams before Todd Gurley's touchdown with 3:17 to play.
The Cardinals improved to 4-9-1 with a 38-24 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday behind one of the Cards' more impressive offensive efforts. With the exception of an interception, quarterback Kyler Murray played one of his best games, orchestrating an offense that looked efficient, quick and focused. While he made plays with his arm and legs, RB Kenyan Drake scored a career-high 4 touchdowns.
Kai Forbath has made field goals form 50, 42 and 42 yards and made all of his extra points. He hit his first kickoff out of bounds, but he gets a pass for bringing some consistency to the kicking game after Brett Maher missed 10 field goal tries in the first 13 games.
The Seahawks will finish the regular season with a 7-1 road record, the best in franchise history. Pete Carroll called that accomplishment "something to be proud of." Sunday's win in Charlotte was their fifth of the season in the 10 a.m. Pacific time slot, which has historically been difficult for West Coast teams.
RB James Conner is indeed active, first time since Nov. 14 against the Browns. Justin Layne gets the nod over Artie Burns yet again. Rest of the Steelers inactives:QB Paxton Lynch, WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, CB Artie Burns, OLB Tuzar Skipper, T Chuks Okorafor, TE Vance McDonald, DE Isaiah Buggs
Tyler Lockett said his shin injury is "still lingering," as is a cold that followed the flu bug he came down with the week of Thanksgiving. You wouldn't know it based on the way he busted out of his recent slump Sunday. He caught eight of nine targets for 120 yards and a touchdown and was open for what would have been another score had Russell Wilson not overthrown him.
49ers TE George Kittle just surpassed Mike Ditka for the most total receiving yards by a tight end in his first three seasons. He has 12 catches for 131 yards on the day. Kittle has also been about all the Niners have offensively today. They might need more than him to finish this one out with a win.
Bucs coach Bruce Arians when asked about why the team has had so many hamstrings as of late: “We will be talking a lot to our sports science people about it. Maybe I've overworked them in practice, the receivers, because we need the reps. Our quarterback needs the reps. So we run them a little bit more this time of year than I would probably like to do, but we need the reps.”
Chris Carson's 133 rushing yards Sunday set a new career-high. That puts him at 1,190 for the season, also a career-high. The second of his two touchdowns came on a fourth-down run in which he bulled his way into the end zone. "We try to do our job up front creating seams for him, but a lot of that is just him, man," left tackle Duane Brown said. "He's the toughest runner in the league. Guys don't want to tackle him for four quarters. He gets in the second-level and he's making guys pay."
Bobby Wagner and Quandre Diggs both sprained their ankles Sunday. Neither returned. Pete Carroll said Diggs' sprain appears to be more significant of the two and indicated he could miss next week's game against Arizona. Wagner said he'll be "fine." He was cracking jokes postgame and walked without a limp. Carroll said Luke Willson will be back next week. Ziggy Ansah and Mychal Kendricks have a good chance to return as well. Jadeveon Clowney was "violently" ill Friday and didn't make the trip.
For the first time since Nov. 4 at the New York Giants, Ezekiel Elliott has a 100-yard game (20 carries, 103 yards). Elliott has six 100-yard rushing games on the season and now 25 for his career. This is as good as he has looked this season. The run blocking has been good but Elliott has done a good job of making things happen on his own.
The Rams came out flat against the Cowboys, and find themselves in a massive hole trailing 28-7 at halftime. Todd Gurley was unable to get moving, and Jared Goff threw an interception with under two minutes to play in the first half that the Cowboys converted into a touchdown. The defense has appeared discombobulated, as two defensive backs collided on a 59-yard touchdown pass to Tavon Austin, and Ezekiel Elliott has rushed for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
Ryan Fitzpatrick has a ton of respect for Eli Manning, admiring him for years. They shared a moment postgame. I asked Fitz would he want the same fan ovation when he's done. He joked, "From who? It depends on what stadium we're in. Whenever that is, i just want my family there."
What does a 28-7 halftime lead mean for the Cowboys? They are 6-0 this season when leading after two quarters. They are getting production everywhere, but let's look at the defense. In the playoff loss to the Rams last January, the Cowboys allowed 273 yards on the ground. Today, the Cowboys have allowed 3 yards on eight carries in the first half. Todd Gurley has 1 yard on six carries. He had 115 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries in Los Angeles' playoff win.
Where has this Cowboys' team been? They have a 28-7 with 16 seconds left in the half. This is as dominate as they have looked since beating Philadelphia, 37-10, on Oct. 20. Ezekiel Elliott has two touchdowns. Jason Witten and Tavon Austin have touchdown catches. The defense has stomped the Rams so far.
Perhaps as could be expected coming off a hard-fought, emotional win against New Orleans last week, the 49ers were awfully sluggish in the first half against Atlanta. It's tied at 10 as the teams enter the locker room. Niners will have to turn it up in the second half and can't afford a letdown here as they continue to pursue the NFC West crown and the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Who needs practice? Sean Lee was questionable coming into the game because of pectoral and thigh injuries but he just recorded his first interception since Dec. 10, 2017 and returned the pick 25 yards to set up the Cowboys at the Rams 9.
Ezekiel Elliott has 76 yards on 16 carries and his 1-yard touchdown has given the Cowboys a 21-7 lead with 1:57 to play in the half. Elliott has more yards on the ground in the first half than he has had in six other games this season. The Cowboys have 120 yards rushing as a team. Elliott has 10 touchdowns on the season, giving him two double-digit touchdown seasons in his career.
LB Brennan Scarlett on the personal foul penalty called in the fourth quarter: “I clearly hit the guys with my shoulder. It wasn't near the head or neck area. It's tough on the other side. It's a bang-bang play. The refs, that's what they see, and I just wish it would have been a reviewable call, especially at that point in the game in a critical situation.”
Yeah, they're playing football amid all this pomp and circumstance over the Raiders' final regular season game in the Oakland Coliseum before the move to Las Vegas. And the Raiders are halfway home to providing their fans with a well-deserved send-off victory, leading the Jaguars 16-3 at halftime. Derek Carr has passed for 221 yards, including a 40-yard TD to Tyrell Williams. Darren Waller has six receptions for 106 yards. The Raiders defense has limited the Jags to 75 yards of total offense.
Unless the Jaguars can find some offense in the second half they'll be headed for their sixth consecutive loss. Oakland out-gained the Jaguars 273-75 and lead 16-3 at the break. The Jaguars gained 65 yards on their first drive but gained just 10 yards on their next four possessions. This is coming against one of the worst defenses in the league, too. Without WR DJ Chark on the outside, the Raiders aren't worried about the Jaguars' other receivers. And they're keying on Leonard Fournette.
The Cardinals' offense has looked as good as it has in a while Sunday against the Browns. Kliff Kingsbury is calling a good game, Kyler Murray is making plays with his feet and arm, and the ball is being spread around the offense, which has given Arizona a 21-10 lead at halftime. It's games like this that can get the mind wandering about what the Cardinals' offense could be with more time in it.
Brian Flores says he anticipates Ryan Fitzpatrick being the Dolphins starting QB next Sunday vs. Bengals.
