DENVER — JaMarcus Russell returned to the Oakland Raiders’ lineup in time to hurt the Denver Broncos’ playoff hopes.
Russell threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Chaz Schilens with 35 seconds left for a 20-19 scrum-filled victory over the Broncos on Sunday.
Russell was benched a month ago and passed by Charlie Frye on the depth chart this week.
The former No. 1 overall draft pick entered when Frye was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter by a blow to the head from linebacker Andra Davis. He went 5 of 11 for 47 yards.
The Broncos (8-6) are still in the AFC wild-card hunt, but they were expecting a victory over Oakland (5-9), which won at Invesco Field for the second consecutive season.
Denver left the door open for a Raiders upset by failing to punch it into the end zone after reaching the Oakland 2 late in the fourth.
Brandon Stokley hauled in a 63-yard reception but was horse-collared at the 4 by cornerback Sanford Routt, who saved the sealing touchdown and was whistled for a 2-yard penalty.
From there, the Broncos couldn’t score, and Matt Prater’s fourth field goal made it 19-13, leaving the Raiders within a touchdown with less than six minutes left.
The Raiders went threeand-out but so did the Broncos, and Oakland got the ball back at its 38 with 3 1/2 minutes remaining. Russell moved the Raiders to the Denver 5 and, after a false start, hit Schilens with the game-winner.
The Broncos were outgained on the ground 241-80, with Michael Bush gashing Denver for 133 yards on 18 carries and Darren McFadden (Pulaski Oak Grove, Arkansas Razorbacks) gaining 74 yards on 12 carries.
Frye was 9 for 17 for 68 yards and an interception,plus a 26-yard gain on his only keeper. He had not played this year and worked strictly with Oakland’s scout team. His last start was for Seattle on Oct. 12, 2008, against Green Bay.
Brandon Marshall, who caught an NFL-record 21 passes last week at Indianapolis, settled for seven receptions against Oakland. His 6-yard touchdown grab gave Denver a 16-13 lead in the third.
A penalty on the ensuing kickoff pushed the Raiders back to their own 11, but runs of 18 and 40 yards by Bush and 28 yards by McFadden got them to the Denver 3. But they couldn’t get into the end zone on four runs. McFadden was stuffed just shy of the goal line on fourth-and-goal from the 3.
The Raiders took a 13-7 lead into the locker room after a folly-filled first half by the Broncos.
Denver again struggled in the red zone, committed silly penalties and piled up too many whiffs on blocks, including one particularly bad one by running back Knowshon Moreno, who failed to pick up a linebacker blitz that got quarterback Kyle Orton leveled and killed a drive. It was LaMont Jordan in on third downs after that.
BROWNS 41, CHIEFS 34
Jerome Harrison scored his third touchdown with 44 seconds left and rushed for a team-record 286 yards, and Joshua Cribbs returned two kickoffs for touchdowns as visiting Cleveland beat Kansas City. Cribbs started the Browns (3-11) off with kickoff returns of 100 and 103 yards in the first half, breaking the NFL career record and tying the single-game mark. Harrison took it from there, scoring all of his touchdowns in the second half to break Jim Brown’s team record of 237 yards, set in 1957 and 1961. Heclosed it out with a 28-yard run off right tackle to finish behind only Adrian Peterson and Jamal Lewis in the NFL record book. Kansas City (3-11) got a careerhigh 154 yards and a touchdown from Jamaal Charles and tied the game at 34-all on Matt Cassel’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Mark Bradley (Pine Bluff) on a fourth-and-6 with 2:20 left.
EAGLES 27, 49ERS 13
Donovan McNabb threw for one touchdown and ran for another and DeSean Jackson had 140 yards receiving as host Philadelphia clinched a playoff berth for the eighthtime this decade. With San Francisco’s loss, the Arizona Cardinals clinched their second consecutive NFC West title. The Eagles (10-4) have won five consecutive games and have a one-game lead over Dallas in the NFC East. Philadelphia visits the Cowboys in two weeks. The start of the game was pushed back three hours because the city was still recovering from the second-largest snowfall it has seen since records began in 1884. A total of 23.2 inches of snow fell in Philadelphia on Saturday.
PATRIOTS 17, BILLS 10
Randy Moss bounced back a week after being accused of quitting by Carolina Panthers defenders with five catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. Tully Banta-Cain had three of visiting New England’s six sacks to anchor a banged-up defense. The Patriots (9-5) won their first road game on this side of the Atlantic this season by beating their AFC East rival for the 13th consecutive time and 18th time in 19 meetings. The Bills (5-9) were undone by 11 penalties for 124 yards, including two pass interference calls that set up New England’s first two scores. Buffalo’s 104 yards in penalties in the first half werethe most by an NFL team in an opening half this season.
RAVENS 31, BEARS 7
Joe Flacco threw a career-high four touchdown passes, and host Baltimore capitalized on six Chicago turnovers. Baltimore (8-6) led 14-0 after 13 minutes and 31-7 after three quarters. The victory solidified the Ravens’ hold on the sixth and final playoff spot in the AFC and improved their record against teams currently with losing records to 6-0. Jay Cutler threw three interceptions, upping his NFL-high total to 25, and backup Caleb Hanie was also intercepted. In addition, the Bears (5-9) lost two fumbles. Chicago’s only score came on a 49-yard punt return by Earl Bennett.
CARDINALS 31, LIONS 24
Kurt Warner threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin with 1:54 left, as visiting Arizona (9-5) beat Detroit (2-12).With San Francisco’s loss in Philadelphia later in the day, the Cardinals won consecutive NFC West titles for the first time since 1974-1975. The Lions had the ball with 1:46 left with a chance to come back, but gained just 7 yards and lost their fourth consecutive game. Arizona led 17-0 at halftime, then let the Lions make it 17-all in the third quarter and 24-all with 3:48 left. The Cardinals went 58 yards on their game-winning drive, gaining 34 yards on Beanie Wells’ run, and Boldin broke two tackles on a third-and-3 to score to give Warner two touchdown passes.
FALCONS 10, JETS 7
Tony Gonzalez caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ryan on a fourth-down play with 1:38 remaining as visiting Atlanta beat the New York Jets. A day after the Falcons (7-7) were eliminated from playoff contention, they likely also ended the chances for the stunned Jets (7-7), whose threegame winning streak was stopped. Ryan, starting after missing two games with a toe injury, drove Atlanta downfield for the victory at a cold, windy and half-filled Meadowlands. Frustrated Jets fans in the upper deck tossed snow, the remnants of a major storm in the Northeast, and booed loudly after the score. The Falcons, eliminated from the playoff race with Dallas’ victory over New Orleans on Saturday night, are still in contention to post backto-back winning records for the first time in their 44-year history.
TEXANS 16, RAMS 13
Matt Schaub had his eighth 300-yard passing game and Andre Johnson set a season best with 196 yards receiving, but visiting Houston ended up leaning on field goals to hold off St. Louis. The Rams (1-13) lost their 12th in a row at home and for the 23rd time in 24 games overall only three days after canceling practice after a confirmed case of swine flu. St. Louis got all of its players back, but lost for the second time this season while wearing throwback jerseys honoring the 1999 Super Bowl championship team. The Ramsfell far short of a sellout for the second straight game with paid attendance of 46,256, the franchise’s worst since moving to the Midwest in 1995.
BUCCANEERS 24, SEAHAWKS 7
Rookie Josh Freeman shook off his ninth interception in just over two games to throw two touchdown passes in the second half and lead visiting Tampa Bay over Seattle. Tampa Bay’s 26th-ranked defense forced five turnovers by Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, as the Buccaneers (2-12) won for just the second time in 17 games. With maybe 500 angry Seattle fans watching by the end, the young Bucs triumphantly pointed to the sky after the team’s first victory away from Tampa in 10 tries, since Nov. 23, 2008, at Detroit. Tampa Bay’s last road victory against a team that wasn’t winless was Nov. 2, 2008, at Kansas City.
PANTHERS 26, VIKINGS 7
Presented with an opportunity to get back into the race for the best record in the NFC, Brett Favre and visiting Minnesota fell flat with another Sunday night dud. Steve Smith caught the go-ahead touchdown pass and his long catch and run set up the clinching score and Carolina used a ferocious defense to stifle Favre, Adrian Peterson and the Vikings in a victory. Smith caught nine passes for 157 yards and keyed Carolina’s 20-point fourth quarter. Hours after clinching the NFC North when Green Bay lost, the Vikings (11-3) failed to move within a game of NFC-leading New Orleans a night after the Saints’ first loss of the season. Jonathan Stewart had 109 yards rushing on 25 carries, snapping Minnesota’s NFLlong steak of 36 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
Sports, Pages 21 on 12/21/2009