A Sports Filled Weekend It Was

There was a little bit of every sort of comeback in the NFL on Sunday. Some were true gambles, some were record-setting and some didn’t quite finish.

In no particular order: The New England Patriots, with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback in place of the suspended Tom Brady, held off the Arizona Cardinals 23-21 in Glendale, Ariz. Garoppolo led a drive that set up Stephen Gostkowski’s go-ahead field goal with 3:44 left; the Cardinals drove down the field only to have Chandler Catanzaro miss a field goal attempt from 47 yards with 41 seconds left.

The Oakland Raiders decided they were going to win or lose when they scored a touchdown with 47 seconds left in New Orleans and chose to go for the two-point conversion. They succeeded and won 35-34 on the road. Their AFC West rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, pulled off the greatest comeback in the team history by rebounding from a 24-3 deficit to beat the San Diego Chargers 33-27 in overtime.

But wait. There’s more. The Cincinnati Bengals came from behind to beat the New York Jets 23-22 on Mike Nugent’s 47-yard field goal with 54 seconds left. Matt Prater kicked a 43-yard field goal with eight seconds left to lift the Detroit Lions over the Indianapolis Colts 39-35 (the Colts gave up a safety on the ensuing kickoff). And the Seattle Seahawks beat the Miami Dolphins when Russell Wilson connected with Doug Baldwin on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 31 seconds left.

College Football

Replay officials from the Big 12 and officials from the MAC were suspended for two weeks after screwing up a call at the end of Central Michigan’s win over Oklahoma State. The officials gave CMU a free down in error and that led to the decisive touchdown. … A key move in the Associated Press poll has Florida State jumping from No. 4 to No. 2 and Clemson, which has struggled in both of its wins, slipping from second to No. 5. Alabama remains No. 1.

Tennis

Stan Wawrinka won his third major Sunday at the U.S. Open, and, as in the other two, he beat Novak Djokovic to do it. Wawrinka prevailed 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. Angelique Kerber, now the world’s No. 1 ranked player, defeated Karoline Pliskova in three sets on Saturday to take the women’s title in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Elsewhere
The NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship’s field of 16 drivers was set after Saturday night’s race in Richmond, Va., won by Denny Hamlin. The real fun was Tony Stewart intentionally wrecking Ryan Newman – who used to drive for him – after a few collisions. The two exchanged insults in a typically manly fashion. … David Ortiz hit his 535th career home run on Sunday in the Boston Red Sox’ 11-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. That moved him one ahead of Jimmie Foxx and one behind Mickey Mantle on the all-time list. The Red Sox have a two-game lead in the American League East and now open a seven-game homestand. … Dustin Johnson won the BMW Championship by three shots at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana. He shot a 5-under 67 in the final round to top Paul Casey.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman