NFL Week 12 winners and losers: Philip Rivers’ record, Hue Jackson’s gift, fight breaks out in Jags-Bills
The Giants rode Saquon Barkley to a big lead and then hardly used him. D'oh. More winners, losers and highlights.
![Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers had a record-setting day and is one of our winners of the week.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/Tor-NGdaiqBZ7jZUX8gKYwHrHtU=/760x507/smart/filters:format(webp)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/UHOOUSQHZVFMVENXWIL3Q24Z4Q.jpg)
Sorting through Sunday's action with winners, losers, notable feats and questionable calls.
Winners
• The Cleveland Browns ended a 25-game road losing streak with a resounding win at Cincinnati.
• Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for 99 yards and led Buffalo to a win over Jacksonville. After the game, he was congratulated by Jags cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who had called Allen "trash" in a GQ interview during the offseason.
Week 12 scoreboard | Standings
• Philip Rivers completed his first 25 passes to set an NFL record to start a game. No. 25 was a touchdown. Rivers went 28 for 29 to set the record for highest single-game completion percentage at 96.6. Mark Brunell, who completed his first 22 passes in a 2006 game, had the old record to start a game. Rivers tied Ryan Tannehill's 2015 record for consecutive completions (Tannehill did it over two games). The Chargers rolled the Cardinals 45-10, but lost running back Melvin Gordon to a knee injury.
Losers
• 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster was arrested at the team's hotel on Saturday night on a domestic violence charge. Foster, who has numerous off-field problems, will be cut on Monday. Teammate Richard Sherman said the team did the right thing. Oh, and San Fran lost at Tampa Bay.
• Leonard Fournette and Shaq Lawson were thrown out of the Jags-Bills game for fighting. Fournette's ejection was a killer for fantasy fans.
• The Giants had a 19-3 lead following Saquon Barkley's 51-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. He touched the ball just seven times the rest of the game.
Jacksonville’s season in a nutshell
This sequence from the Jags loss at Buffalo:
• Score a touchdown on Donte Moncrief's terrific catch to take the lead at Buffalo
• Lose running back Leonard Fournette, who was ejected for fighting during a scrum after Moncrief's touchdown
• Touchdown overturned when it was determined Moncrief was down six inches from the goal line
• With Fournette out of the game, Carlos Hyde loses a yard on first down
• False start backs them up five
• Blake Bortles throws a touchdown pass, which is wiped out by a penalty
• Still second down, pocket collapses on Bortles, who falls forward for a yard
• Bortles sacked on third down, losing eight more yards
• Josh Lambo, who had made 28 consecutive field goals inside of 50 yards, misses a 42-yard field goal
• Bills score a touchdown on ensuing possession and go on to win 24-21
• Jacksonville is 3-8
He said it
• "I take full responsibility for that. We lost the game. We should've won this game hands down. I have to be a professional. I mean, you can't have that." – Jags running back Leonard Fournette after being ejected for fighting.
• "He may not have a Ph.D in route running yet, but he's in graduate school. This young man is coming along fast." – CBS analyst Adam Archuleta talking about Carolina rookie wide receiver D.J. Moore, an Imhotep High product.
• "I care about Reuben, but nobody is bigger than the team. … Our No. 1 rule is you got to protect the team, and he has put us in a bad light too much. Hopefully this will fix him and he can be successful somewhere else." – 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on linebacker Reuben Foster.
• "That's just somebody that's in our locker room asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team we play twice a year. Everybody can have their spin on it, but that's how I feel." – Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield (four TDs) on his unhappiness that former head coach Hue Jackson is now an assistant for Cincinnati.
• "We're going to spell him a little bit as we go. That had nothing to do with the outcome of the game." – Giants coach Pat Shurmur trying to explain why Saquon Barkley got just four carries in the second half of the Giants 25-22 loss to the Eagles. They led 19-3.
Did you notice?
• Two of the three road favorites lost outright on Sunday: Jacksonville and Pittsburgh.
• Andrew Luck had three TD passes, his eighth consecutive game with at least three. Only Tom Brady (10) and Peyton Manning (8) have ever had that many consecutive games.
• After his first half interception, Cleveland's Damarious Randall handed the ball to Cincinnati assistant Hue Jackson. Jackson, who politely tapped Randall on the helmet, was Cleveland's head coach for three years until he was fired last month.
• Christian McCaffrey had 125 yards rushing and 100 receiving, the first Panthers player ever to do that in a game.
• Best defensive play of the day came when Denver safety Will Parks (6-1, 194) collided with Pittsburgh's Xavier Grimble (6-4, 261) forcing Grimble, who was running full speed, to fumble out of the end zone. It was a violent and tremendous play.
• Oakland quarterback Derek Carr was knocked briefly out of the game when he was hit by Baltimore's Brandon Carr. The fellas at the Froggy Carr Mummers brigade must have loved that.
• The Packers had just 42 yards in the second half before their final drive, which ended with a field goal in a crippling 24-17 loss to Minnesota. The cheeseheads (4-6-1) are in trouble.
• In two games against Green Bay, Minnesota QB Kirk Cousins has 767 passing yards, seven TDs and one pick in 86 pass attempts. Wide receiver Adam Thielen has 20-256-2 as the Vikes went 1-0-1 against their rivals.
• Minnesota lost top corner Xavier Rhodes to an apparent hamstring injury late Sunday night. It could be a huge loss with the Vikes playing at New England in Week 13.
• Aaron Rodgers (198 yards Sunday night) has been held to under 200 yards in two of his last three starts. That'll break fantasy hearts.
• Jets kicker Jason Myers has now made four 55-yard field goals and a 56 yarder, the first kicker to make five FGs of 55+ in a single season.
• Tyler Lockett's touchdown celebration was a re-enactment of Allen Iverson's famous step-over of Tyronn Lue from the 2001 NBA Finals. Lockett played Iverson while Seahawks teammate David Moore was Lue. Pretty humorous.
• Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski had 3-56-1 and was targeted seven times. He had missed the previous two games.
• Tom Brady is now 24-5 after byes, including postseason.
• As if things aren't hard enough for the Cardinals, down judge Tom Symonette hit quarterback Josh Rosen with a flag as Rosen was rolling out of the pocket and looking down field. Symonette spotted a Cardinals holding penalty; Rosen's pass was incomplete.
• Former Eagle Alejandro Villanueva caught a touchdown on a pass from kicker Chris Boswell on a fake field goal.
>> FROM THE ARCHIVES: Football is Villanueva's latest mission
• Baltimore rookie Gus Edwards (118 yards) had his second consecutive 100-yard game and is now 18 yards behind Gus Frerotte for career rushing yards for guys named Gus.
• Carolina's running out of gas. They've now lost three in a row and Seattle broke the Panthers 10-game home winning streak.
The final word
"Three weeks ago if somebody had said this was going to happen I would have slapped them," said Carolina quarterback Cam Newton.
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