Matt Prater kicked a 28-yard field goal to lift the Denver Broncos to a 51-48 win over the Dallas Cowboys in a shootout at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday.
Peyton Manning’s Broncos improved to 5-0 on the season, becoming one of three undefeated teams left in the National Football League regular season.
Manning posted his second 400-yard game of the season, leading the Broncos to their 16th straight regular-season win and eighth consecutive on the road.
Photo: AFP
“We talked about at halftime that we needed to keep scoring,” Manning said. “We kept scoring and we had the huge defensive play at the end.”
Denver tied the game on a one-yard touchdown run from Knowshon Moreno with 2 minutes, 39 seconds remaining and Dallas got the ball back at their own 20 with all three timeouts. The Cowboys fell to 2-3, but then Dallas quarterback Tony Romo threw an interception to Danny Trevathan and Denver got the ball back at Dallas’ 24-yard line.
After a 13-yard catch by Demaryius Thomas that took the ball to the Dallas 11, Denver faced a third-and-one at the two and Moreno’s one-yard run gave the Broncos a fresh set of downs.
Quarterback Manning then ran the clock down to two seconds, before calling a timeout, setting the stage for Prater’s heroic 28-yard field goal in front of a crowd of 92,758.
With the win Denver joined the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints as the lone undefeated teams in the league. The Broncos face the winless Jacksonville Jaguars at home next weekend.
The 37-year-old Manning finished the game 33 for 42 for 414 yards and four touchdowns, but also threw his first interception of the season. He added a rushing touchdown, his first in almost five years.
“It was a bad decision,” Manning said of the interception. “I thought I might be able to get one in there, but didn’t make a good throw.”
Moreno finished with a total of 150 yards and a touchdown for Denver, who have scored 230 points in their first five games this season.
Julius Thomas caught nine passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns, while Eric Decker had five catches for 87 yards and a touchdown.
Romo went toe-to-toe with Manning through much of the game, throwing for 506 yards and five touchdowns on 25 of 36 attempts, but his interception late in the game turned out to be costly for the Cowboys.
Three different Dallas receivers finished with more than 100 yards as Terrance Williams (151), Dez Bryant (141) and Jason Witten (121) all surpassed the mark.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, BenJarvus Green-Ellis scored the lone touchdown to help the Cincinnati Bengals beat the New England Patriots 13-6, handing the Patriots their first loss of the season.
Running back Green-Ellis, who played four seasons with the Patriots, powered straight ahead from a yard out on fourth down with just over nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. The touchdown capped a 14-play, 93-yard drive and put the Bengals up 13-3 in front of a crowd of 64,259 at Paul Brown Stadium.
The Tom Brady-led Patriots offense struggled to get in the end zone.
Brady also had his brilliant consecutive games streak with a touchdown pass snapped at 52.
Brady failed on three passing attempts from the one-yard line which led to New England settling for a field goal with 6:28 to play.
Sunday’s other results:
‧ Green Bay 22, Detroit 9
‧ New Orleans 26, Chicago 18
‧ Kansas City 26, Tennessee 17
‧ St Louis 34, Jacksonville 20
‧ Indianapolis 34, Seattle 28
‧ Baltimore 26, Miami 23
‧ Philadelphia 36, NY Giants 21
‧ Arizona 22, Carolina 6
‧ San Francisco 34, Houston 3
‧ Oakland 27, San Diego 17
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