Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw three touchdown passes in his first game back from suspension on Sunday to help the Steelers continue their strong start to the NFL season.
The New York Jets chalked up their fifth straight win with a 24-20 victory over the Denver Broncos and Brett Favre defied an elbow injury to make his 290th straight start and lead the Minnesota Vikings (2-3) past the Dallas Cowboys 24-21.
Roethlisberger, returning from a four-game suspension for breaching NFL rules on player conduct, connected with Mike Wallace, Hines Ward and Heath Miller in Pittsburgh’s 28-10 win over the struggling Cleveland Browns (1-5).
“I thought he played well, but not that I’m surprised by that,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Roethlisberger. “He missed a few throws. He’s not perfect, none of us are, but he played a good football game.”
The win gave the Steelers (4-1) sole possession of top spot in the AFC North Division, one game ahead of a Baltimore Ravens (4-2) team that lost an overtime thriller against New England.
The Patriots (4-2) trailed the Ravens by 10 points in the final quarter, but rallied to tie the score at 20-20 and force the game into overtime, where Stephen Gost-kowski booted a 35-yard field goal to give New England a 23-20 victory.
New Orleans (4-2) got their stuttering campaign back on track with a convincing 31-6 thumping of a Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-2) team that were held scoreless until the fourth quarter.
The Saints suffered a shock loss at Arizona last week that raised doubts about their prospects of back-to-back Super Bowl titles, but they came back with a powerful display against the hapless Buccaneers.
Quarterback Drew Brees erased any concerns about his shaky form with a confident display, passing for 263 yards and three touchdowns, while rookie running back Chris Ivory rushed for a career-best 158 yards on 15 carries.
“Any time you have a game like Arizona, where you feel like it’s definitely a game you should win but no one plays well and you squander opportunities, then you can’t get back on the field fast enough,” Brees said.
The Philadelphia Eagles (4-2) overcame the absence of injured quarterback Michael Vick to beat the Atlanta Falcons (4-2) in a brutal encounter and join the New York Giants atop the NFC East Division.
Kevin Kolb, Vick’s replacement, had three touchdown passes and completed 23 of 29 passes for 326 yards in a game that featured a sickening collision between Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson.
Both left the field, Jackson with concussion and Robinson with a head injury.
“These things are going to happen in this sport. This is not tiddily-winks,” Eagles head coach Andy Reid said. “This is a violent sport and things are going to happen.”
Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes and Brandon Jacobs rushed for two as the Giants won their third straight game, a 28-20 victory that handed the Detroit Lions (1-5) their 24th straight loss on the road, dating back to 2007.
In Houston, the Texans (4-2) recovered from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter and, thanks to a late score, eked out a 35-31 over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Andre Johnson’s touchdown with 28 seconds left completed the comeback and left the Texans on top of the AFC South Division, while the Chiefs, who have lost two straight after a perfect start to the season, remained atop the AFC West.
Dan Carpenter kicked a 44-yard field goal in overtime to give the Miami Dolphins (3-2) a 23-20 victory over the Green Bay Packers (3-3), leaving them two games back of AFC East rivals the New York Jets (5-1).
LaDainian Tomlinson scored two touchdowns in the Jets’ win over Denver (2-4). His second was off a two-yard burst with 1 minute, 13 seconds remaining that put New York ahead.
In other action, the Seattle Sea-hawks (3-2) survived a late charge from the Chicago Bears (4-2) to win 23-20, the St Louis Rams (3-3) upset San Diego 20-17 to drop the Chargers to 2-4 and San Francisco (1-5) beat the Oakland Raiders (2-4), who failed to score a touchdown, 17-9.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but