NFL Football

It was a comeback victory in every sense of the word. The Cleveland Browns literally had to come back onto the field to complete a 33-30 overtime win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday after it appeared the game ended with a missed field goal by Phil Dawson. The Browns trailed 30-27 on the final play of regulation when Dawson attempted a tying 51-yard kick. The ball hit the left upright and seemingly bounced off the crossbar before bounding into the end zone. The officials called the kick no good. The Ravens ran off the field, celebrating a victory in which they scored 16 straight points in the fourth quarter, the last three on a 47-yard field goal by Matt Stover with 26 seconds left. Many of the Browns walked off in stunned silence after Dawson's kick. Several Cleveland players, however, insisted Dawson's kick hit the curved center support behind the crossbar. They gathered in the end zone, pointing at the spot where the football struck before bouncing back. They were right. After a lengthy discussion, the officials ruled the kick passed through the uprights and called the teams back onto the field. NFL rules dictate that a field goal is not reviewable by replay. Referring to the initial call, referee Pete Morelli said, "It was a ruling by one of the officials. The other official informed me that the ball hit the back of the extension of the goal post. ... We determined that was what it struck. Therefore, it made the field goal good."

As the ball left Mike Nugent 's foot and floated through the uprights, the New York Jets stormed the field and celebrated their first win in nearly two months. With thousands of Pittsburgh fans at Giants Stadium waving their yellow Steelers towels, Nugent kicked a 38-yard field goal 5:03 into overtime to give the Jets an unlikely 19-16 victory Sunday. The kick broke a six-game losing streak for the Jets (2-8), who celebrated their first win since Week 3 against Miami in a huge circle around Nugent. In front of a crowd that sometimes looked as if it was a home game for the Steelers (7-3), with fans decked out in black and gold waving their Terrible Towels, the Jets hung tough. Thomas Jones was a huge reason, running for 117 yards on 30 carries and becoming the first running back in 35 games to reach 100 yards against the top-ranked Steelers defense.

Tom Brady. Randy Moss. Even Kyle Eckel. The New England Patriots are showing no mercy to any opponent, not even the Buffalo Bills, a team for which coach Bill Belichick has publicly expressed affection. Scoring touchdowns on their first seven offensive possessions and getting the eighth on a turnover, the Patriots won their 10th straight game, routing Buffalo 56-10 Sunday night. Brady and Moss, ready to rewrite the NFL record books, led the romp. Brady was 31-for-39 for 373 yards with five TD passes, four to Moss, as New England became the 10th team since 1970 to start a season 10-0. The way they played, they appear unbeatable, and barring injury are an excellent bet to become the NFL's first perfect team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. It was the ninth time in 10 games New England won by more than 17 points and the ninth time it scored more than 34 points. The Patriots did it coming off a bye week after their only close game of the season, a 24-20 win in Indianapolis in which they came back from a 10- point deficit with less than 10 minutes left. They also did it against a Buffalo team that came in 5-4 with four straight wins. Brady, who has yet to throw fewer than three touchdown passes in a game, increased his TD passes to 38, just 11 short of Peyton Manning 's single-season record, set in 2004. Moss' four TD catches gave him 16 for the season, six short of the record set by Jerry Rice in 1987.

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