CNN
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With six teams on a bye in Week 12 and many heavily-favored teams in the games on the schedule, Sunday’s slate of games had the possibility of lacking intrigue.
But it didn’t play out that way, with historic performances from star players, thrilling endings to games and underdogs hanging around against their favored opponents.
Here are the main storylines from Sunday’s action.
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Saquon Barkley has historic single-game performance
Saquon Barkley continued his excellent first season with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football as his historic performance led his team to a 37-20 victory over the Los Angles Rams.
Barkley, who moved from the New York Giants to Philadelphia in the offseason, rushed for an Eagles franchise-record 255 yards on just 26 carries, finishing with over 300 total yards at SoFi Stadium to become just the 13th player in NFL history to reach that mark. 255 rushing yards in a game is also the ninth-most ever recorded in a single game by one player.
The 27-year-old had 73 yards in the first half before exploding for a 70-yard touchdown on the second half’s first play. Late into the fourth quarter, Barkley ran for another long touchdown, this time a 72-yard scamper to cap a memorable evening for the running back.
His two long rushing touchdowns meant he became the first player in NFL history with multiple rushing touchdowns of 70-plus yards in the second half of a single game.
Barkley leads the league in rushing at the moment – his main rival for that accolade, Derrick Henry, plays on Monday night as the Baltimore Ravens face the Los Angeles Chargers – and his teammates and opponents were full of praise for him afterwards.
“He’s the best in the league. He’s the best at what he does,” Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said in his postgame interview. “He’s a bad man.”
Rams rookie linebacker Jared Verse said he’d “never seen a running back like that.”
But Barkley stressed that there’s more to come. “My whole mantra this offseason and this season: how consistent I can be day-to-day,” he said after the game.
“Whether I rush for 250 yards or I rush for 50 yards, still come in on Monday and do the same thing. My story’s not finished and it’s going to keep going. When the season’s all said and done, we’ll look back and smile and be happy with the things I did or didn’t do.”
Barkley’s big solo performance helped the Eagles to an impressive victory on the road against an improving Rams team as Philadelphia won its seventh game in a row to improve to 9-2.
The Rams had actually scored the first touchdown of the game when Kyren Williams ran from one yard out, but the home team struggled to score points from then.
The Eagles went into halftime with a 13-7 lead before Barkley’s first long touchdown run extended the lead after the break, only for Los Angeles to cut the deficit to six points minutes later with a Matthew Stafford touchdown pass to DeMarcus Robinson.
But in response, Philadelphia scored 17 straight points to put the result beyond any doubt with a late score from Cooper Kupp cutting the final margin.
Thrilling ending to NFC East clash
Is this the wildest ending to a game we’ve seen all season?
Sunday’s game between the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys had been a low-scoring affair through three quarters, with the Cowboys leading 10-9 at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
But in the fourth quarter, all hell broke loose. A field goal and touchdown to Luke Schoonmaker meant Dallas had an 11-point lead with just over five minutes remaining before Washington replied with a Zach Ertz score and a two-point conversion to reduce the deficit to three.
However on the ensuing kickoff, Cowboys returner KaVontae Turpin had one of the plays of the season, looking like he might have thrown the game away when the ball slipped between his legs before gathering it at the one-yard line, producing a spin move to find a lane for himself and sprinting through a gap in the defense for an electric 99-yard kickoff return touchdown.
“Once I hit the spin move and I got through, I knew for sure it was a touchdown,” Turpin said of his play.
The score looked to have taken the wind out of the Commanders’ sail and, although an Austin Seibert field goal made it a one-score game, it looked like a tall order for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels to produce another moment of brilliance – he already led a Hail Mary victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 8 – when they got the ball back trailing a touchdown with 21 seconds remaining.
Daniels connected with wide receiver Terry McLaurin on his first pass attempt and McLaurin did the rest, sprinting 86 yards for a thrilling TD with just the extra point needed to tie the game as the Washington fans went wild.
But there was dismay for the Commanders as Seibert hooked the kick and another miracle Washington comeback fell by the wayside. The home team did attempt an onside kick to get one more opportunity, but Cowboys safety Juanyeh Thomas scooped up the kick and ran it back 43 yards to seal the 34-26 victory for Dallas to end their five-game losing streak.
“It was a tale of two halves: their special teams made the good plays in the first half, ours made them in the second half,” Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy said. “And then we got down to it at the end here and it was just a game situational extravaganza. It was like Yahtzee, everything was in there … we still have to execute in those spots.”
There were 31 points scored in final 3:02 of Sunday’s game as the Cowboys righted their ship while the Commanders have now lost three in a row with any challenge of the Eagles at the top of the NFC East looking like a long shot.
Daniels did continue his historic first NFL season as he joined Washington’s quarterback, Marcus Mariota, as the only rookie quarterbacks ever with at least 250 passing yards, 70 rushing yards, two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown in a game.
Chiefs get back to winning ways thanks to last-second field goal
It wasn’t pretty, but after suffering their first defeat of the season last time out, the Kansas City Chiefs got back to winning ways on Sunday with a narrow 30-27 victory over the Carolina Panthers.
Facing the Panthers – one of the worst teams over the last two years – on a two game-winning streak, the Chiefs found a way to make things close despite quarterback Patrick Mahomes having one of his better games of the season.
Mahomes threw 27-of-37 for 269 yards, three touchdowns – two to tight-end Noah Gray and one to DeAndre Hopkins – and no interceptions.
But thanks largely to 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young’s best game of the season, Carolina hung around, tying the game at 27-27 in the fourth quarter when Chuba Hubbard rumbled in one yard for a TD.
However, like he has done so often before, Mahomes produced a brilliant fourth-quarter drive to set up the game-winning attempt, making short passes to move the chains before a weaving 33-yard run moved the Chiefs into field goal territory.
And from 31 yards away as time expired, Spencer Shrader – filling in yet again for the injured Harrison Butker – did the rest as he blasted the field goal through the uprights and improved the Chiefs to 10-1 on the season.
Afterwards, Mahomes expressed his happiness at the victory but also emphasized how important it was for his team to be more efficient when it comes to redzone scoring.
“You always want to have some blowouts. You want it to be a little calmer in the fourth quarter,” he told reporters.
“But I’ve always said it can be a good thing when you get to the playoffs and later in the season just knowing that you’ve been in those moments before and knowing how to attack it play-by-play and not make it too big of a moment. But I would love to win a game not by the very last play.”
Mahomes’ clean game was his 24th career game with at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions, tied with Russell Wilson for the most such games by a player in his first eight seasons in NFL history.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce also marked a historic milestone with his 62 receiving yards, passing Antonio Gates for the third-most regular-season receiving yards by a tight end all-time as Kelce now has 11,897. Only Tony Gonzalez (15,127 receiving yards) and Jason Witten (13,046) have more.
For the Panthers, it was another positive outing, in particular from Young who continues to show development following his mid-season benching.
Full Week 12 Sunday scores
Away @ home (winners in bold)
Kansas City Chiefs 30-27 Carolina Panthers
Minnesota Vikings 30-27 (OT) Chicago Bears
Tennessee Titans 32-27 Houston Texans
Detroit Lions 24-6 Indianapolis Colts
New England Patriots 15-34 Miami Dolphins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-7 New York Giants
Dallas Cowboys 34-26 Washington Commanders
Denver Broncos 29-19 Las Vegas Raiders
San Francisco 49ers 10-38 Green Bay Packers
Arizona Cardinals 6-16 Seattle Seahawks
Philadelphia Eagles 37-20 Los Angeles Rams