THE DALLAS COWBOYS made a statement with a 33-13 home victory over Philadelphia that pulled them level with the Eagles atop the NFC East at 10-3.
The Cowboys led from wire-to-wire, quarterback Dak Prescott connecting with CeeDee Lamb on a 13-yard touchdown pass to cap their opening drive.
Prescott threw for 271 yards and two touchdowns and the Dallas defense put on a clinic as the Cowboys avenged a 28-23 loss to Philadelphia last month.
Prescott hit Michael Gallup with a one-yard TD pass in the final minute of a first half that also featured a one-yard touchdown plunge by Dallas’ Rico Dowdle and saw the Cowboys up 24-6 at the break.
Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey remained perfect for the season, booting four field goals that included one of 60 yards and a 59-yarder.
Philadelphia, limited to two field goals from Jake Elliott in the first half, scored their only touchdown when Jalen Carter grabbed a Prescott fumble and ran it 42 yards for a score in the third quarter.
The Eagles, who coughed up three fumbles, wouldn’t score again.
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills kept their NFL post-season hopes alive with a nail-biting 20-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs earlier on Sunday.
A 39-yard field goal from Tyler Bass with 1min 54sec remaining sealed victory for Allen and the Bills at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in another absorbing encounter between the two rivals.
But the Bills survived an almighty scare on the Chiefs’ final drive. What would have been an all-time great touchdown saw tight end Travis Kelce catch from Patrick Mahomes and toss a lateral pass to send Kadarius Toney racing into the end zone, but it was ruled out for an offside at the line of scrimmage by the eventual scorer.
With the score disallowed and the Chiefs moved back a further five yards, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was unable to move the chains which left Buffalo celebrating a win that leaves them on 7-6 and second in the AFC East.
Bills quarterback Allen could not hide his relief at the disallowed touchdown that enabled Buffalo to claim a hard-fought victory.
“That might have been the craziest play I’ve ever seen in my life,” Allen said of Kelce’s lateral pass.
“We got a win, we’ve obviously got some things to clean up, but we’ll take it. We just rallied behind each other, played for each other. Wish we’d scored some more points but a win’s a win.”
Allen threw one touchdown and rushed for another to finish with 233 passing yards from 23 completions.
Opposite number Mahomes had a relatively quiet day, with one touchdown and an interception for 271 yards as the reigning Super Bowl champions fell to a second straight loss.
NFC West leaders San Francisco improved to 10-3 with a convincing 28-16 home win over the Seattle Seahawks.
Quarterback Brock Purdy threw two touchdowns with 368 yards while running back Christian McCaffrey rushed for 145 yards. It was dual threat Deebo Samuel, however, who stole the show with his two scores — one a caught pass from Purdy and one a close-range rush.
In Las Vegas, the Raiders and the Minnesota Vikings came within a whisker of the first 0-0 scoreline of the NFL’s Super Bowl era before Greg Joseph’s 36-yard field goal with 1:57 on the clock gave the Vikings a 3-0 victory.
The result was the lowest scoring game since Pittsburgh defeated Miami by the same scoreline in 2007. The last time a game finished 0-0 after four quarters was in 1943.
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