AMERICAN FOOTBALL:THE NEW Orleans Saints won the battle of the unbeaten teams as they hammered the visiting New York Giants 48-27 on Sunday. Veteran Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw four touchdown passes and completed 23 of his 30 passes for 369 yards as Giants counterpart Eli Manning managed one touchdown pass and 157 yards on his return to his hometown.
The Saints also rushed for three touchdowns as seven players scored to move New Orleans to 5-0 in week six of the National Football League season. The Giants fell to 5-1.
The Minnesota Vikings survived a late rally from the Baltimore Ravens to stay unbeaten after six games as they edged home 33-31 in Minneapolis.
The Vikings had looked comfortable at 27-10 ahead with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Brett Favre having thrown three touchdown passes. However, the Ravens rallied with three touchdowns to move into the lead at 31-30 with less than four minutes to go. Ryan Longwell’s field goal put the Vikings ahead once more and the Ravens missed a late field-goal attempt of their own as the Vikings held on.
Elsewhere in the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers moved to 3-2 for the season as they won a divisional clash with the Detroit Lions 26-0.
Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes as Detroit’s stand-in quarterback Drew Stanton was restricted to just 57 yards with two interceptions in the absence of the injured Matt Stafford.
The Houston Texans defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 28-17 and ended their run of last-gasp victories. The Bengals had rallied to win three games in a row inside the last 22 seconds but, having led the visiting Texans 17-14 at half-time, there was no similar recovery as Matt Schaub threw four touchdown passes, two to tight end Owen Daniels.
The Kansas City Chiefs chalked up their first win of the year as they beat the Washington Redskins 14-6 in a game without a touchdown.
Ryan Succop kicked four field goals and the Chiefs added a two-point safety in the fourth quarter after Redskins quarterback Todd Collins was sacked in his own end zone.
The St Louis Rams stay winless, however, as the Jacksonville Jaguars scored an overtime field goal to defeat them 23-20 in Florida.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers also remain without a victory after a 28-21 defeat at home to the Carolina Panthers.
Reigning Super Bowl champions the Pittsburgh Steelers continued to rally from back-to-back defeats in September with a 27-14 victory at the Cleveland Browns.
The Tennessee Titans’ season went from bad to worse as last year’s best regular season team saw its winless campaign extended to six games with a 59-0 pummelling at the New England Patriots’ snowy Gillette Stadium.
The Patriots moved to 4-2 for the season as quarterback Tom Brady threw six touchdown passes, an NFL record five in the second quarter, and completed 29 of his 34 passes for 380 yards.
Wide receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker were the main beneficiaries, catching three and two TD passes respectively, while Kevin Faulk caught one and Laurence Moroney rushed for a touchdown.
Having thrown a career-high number of touchdown passes, Brady was replaced by rookie Brian Hoyer in the third quarter and the stand-in rushed one yard for a touchdown of his own as the Patriots matched the Los Angeles Rams’ 59-0 win over Atlanta in 1976 as the biggest score since the NFL merged with the American Football League in 1970.
The Titans, who ended the 2008 season with a 13-3 record, are now 0-6 following their worst defeat since the team’s inception as the Houston Oilers in 1960.
The all-New York state match-up between the Jets and the Bills went into overtime at the Meadowland as visiting Buffalo kicker Rian Lindell missed a field goal four seconds from the end of regular time with the score 13-13.
Lindell made amends with 2:46 of OT left when he did convert the game-winning field goal from 47 yards for a 16-13 victory, handing the Jets a third loss in a row. The Jets’ rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez was intercepted five times and completed only 10 of 29 passes.
Elsewhere, the Oakland Raiders notched their second win of the season with a 13-6 defeat of the Philadelphia Eagles, while, in Seattle, the Seahawks lost for the fourth time in six games, beaten 27-3 by the Arizona Cardinals, who move to 3-2.
