EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Cam Newton and the New England Patriots appeared headed to a fifth straight loss — this one against the winless New York Jets, of all teams.
Then came the fourth quarter, and potential embarrassment turned into big-time relief.
Nick Folk kicked a 51-yard field goal as time expired to win it 30-27 on Monday night after Newton rallied the Patriots from a 10-point deficit to avoid the franchise’s first five-game skid since 1995.
“It shows the character of this team,” said Rex Burkhead, who had a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. “Just battling, fighting. It shows the strength we have. We’re not going to quit. We’re not going to lay down.”
Newton had two touchdown runs, with the second tying it at 27 with 1:57 remaining. He also brushed off his struggles of the past few weeks, including a fumble against Buffalo last week that sealed a loss.
“I’m getting tired of sucking,” said Newton, who was 27 of 35 for 274 yards passing. “It’s simple. As a competitor, you know what your standard is. Taking pride in your work, that’s what it comes down to.”
After the Jets (0-9) went three-and-out for the first time all night, the Patriots (3-5) got the ball back with 47 seconds left and went to work.
Newton had a 5-yard run on third-and-1 from the New England 42 and then spiked the ball with 8 seconds remaining. He followed with a 20-yard pass to Jakobi Meyers to put Folk _ who made several big kicks for the Jets from 2010-16 — in position for the winning field goal.
“I had a lot of good memories here at MetLife (Stadium),” said Folk, who had been dealing with a back injury. “I just added one to the other sideline tonight.”
Meanwhile, the Jets dropped to 0-9 for the first time in franchise history, and this was one was particularly agonizing.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said wide receiver Jamison Crowder, whose 20-yard TD catch shortly before halftime gave the Jets a 20-10 lead. “That was a tough loss right there. That was a game we should’ve won.”
After Folk’s 29-yarder with 6:04 left cut the Patriots’ deficit to 27-20, quarterback Joe Flacco — having a solid night until that point while starting for an injured Sam Darnold — tried to put the game away.
Instead, he swayed the momentum in New England’s favour.
Flacco’s deep pass down the middle for Denzel Mims was picked off by J.C. Jackson. That set up Newton’s tying TD — and deflated the Jets, who couldn’t recover.
“I don’t think I would’ve made a different decision in the moment,” Flacco said. “But, obviously, I’d like to have that one back.”
Flacco was 18 of 25 for 262 yards and three touchdown passes — two to Breshad Perriman and one to Crowder — but had the game-changing interception.
With the Patriots down by 10, Newton marched them down the field to open the second half, capping a 14-play drive with Burkhead’s 1-yard plunge into the end zone to make it 20-17.
But the Jets answered right back, with Flacco finding a wide-open Perriman in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown and a 27-17 lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
A miscue by the Jets on special teams kept the Patriots’ next drive alive.
After Newton stumbled on third-and-1 and was stopped for a 4-yard loss, New England appeared to have to settle for a 32-yard field goal. But the Jets were called for 12 men on the field — resulting in a first down for the Patriots. The defence made up for the mistake, getting a red-zone stop — with an assist from a holding penalty on New England right tackle Mike Onwenu — and holding the Patriots to a field goal to make it 27-20 with 6:04 left.
But New England got the ball right back when Flacco was picked off by Jackson, who has interceptions in four straight games.
With the Jets looking for a stop on third down, Bless Austin was called for defensive holding, keeping the drive alive.
Damien Harris ran for 21 yards to get New England into Jets territory. He followed with a 9-yard gain, but it was called back because of an offensive holding penalty on Meyers. Harris also took a big hit on the run and was down for several minutes before walking gingerly to the sideline.
Three plays later, Newton completed a 19-yard pass to Meyers and then ran for 3 yards on fourth-and-1. Newton hit Damiere Byrd for 31 yards to put the ball at the 3.
With a taxed Jets defence tiring, Newton ran for 2 yards on first down, was stopped for no gain and then pushed his way into the end zone for his second rushing TD of the game to tie it with 1:57 remaining.
“It was a good win,” coach Bill Belichick said. “I thought we made the plays we needed to make at the end of the game. Certainly some things we can do better. But we played good complementary football at the end of the game.”
JOE PASSES JOE
Flacco passed Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana (40,551) for 20th on the NFL’s career yards passing list on his first TD pass to Perriman, a 50-yarder in the second quarter that put the Jets up 13-7. Flacco has thrown for 40,726 yards.
CATCHING ON
Meyers had 12 catches for a career-best 169 yards, joining Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman as the only Patriots players with 150 or more yards receiving in a game in the past five seasons.
INJURIES
Patriots: LT Isaiah Wynn left briefly in the first half with an ankle injury, but returned.
Jets: Rookie left tackle Mekhi Becton left in the first half with a chest injury, but coach Adam Gase was unsure if it was a torn pectoral. Cornerback Brian Poole was also ruled out at halftime after injuring a knee in the second quarter.
UP NEXT
Patriots: Host the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday night.
Jets: Bye week. New York is at the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 22.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
