The Chicago Bears won 24-15 in Philadelphia to strengthen their position at the top of a competitive NFC North table.
Their running backs provided the foundation for success against the Eagles, with D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai both rushing for more than 100 yards and each scoring a touchdown.
Caleb Williams found tight end Cole Kmet with a 28-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter to secure victory.
A win for Green Bay (8-3-1) over divisional rivals Detroit (7-5) on Thursday had tightened the gap to Chicago, but the Bears’ fifth consecutive victory improved their record to 9-3.
Chicago face the Packers in two of their next three fixtures, starting with a trip to Lambeau Field on Sunday, 7 December.
The Eagles, meanwhile, were subjected to boos by a section of their home supporters as they put in a disjointed performance to slip to a second successive defeat.
The reigning Super Bowl champions (8-4) lead the NFC East but the Dallas Cowboys (6-5-1) have closed in with victories over Philadelphia and the Kansas City Chiefs in their past two outings.
Drake Batherson scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:58 to play, and the Ottawa Senators held off a furious Anaheim rally after the Ducks pulled their goalie in the final minutes for a 3-2 victory Thursday night.
Batherson was camped in front of the Ducks net when he deflected a blue-line shot from Jake Sanderson past goalie Petr Mrazek to snap the Ducks’ six-game home win streak.
Nick Cousins and Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa, and Linus Ullmark stopped 24 shots.
Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish scored in the second period for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. Mrazek, the backup who made his fifth start of the season in place of Lukas Dostal, had 22 saves.
The Ducks were playing their third game in four nights and the second game of a back-to-back, and it showed during a sluggish first period in which they went eight minutes — including a two-minute power play —without a shot on goal and put only three shots on net.
Cousins gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead when he took a pass from Nick Jensen in the high slot, wound up and rifled a shot over the glove of Mrazek with 3:21 left in the first.
But the Ducks scored twice within a span of 1:26 in the second to turn that 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
The comeback started with a whiff, Cutter Gauthier misfiring on a snap shot from the slot. But the 20-year-old from Sweden was able to control the puck, poke it through the legs of defender Artem Zub and slip a pass to Sennecke, who snapped a shot into a nearly open net for a 1-1 tie with 6:52 left.
Moments later, Ducks forward Chris Kreider, playing in his 900th game, streaked down the right side on a two-on-one break and slid a pass to McTavish, who beat Ullmark stick-side for a 2-1 lead with 5:26 left.
A McTavish interference call with 2:52 left gave the Senators a man advantage, and Pinto took advantage, slipping a puck under Mrazek’s pads with 57 seconds left for his 10th goal of the season and a 2-2 tie.
Gabriel Landeskog scored his first goal of the season, Nathan MacKinnon had three assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ducks 4-1 on Tuesday night in a matchup of the Western Conference’s points leaders.
The loss ended the Ducks’ winning streak at seven games. Leo Carlsson scored his sixth goal in the past four games for Anaheim and recorded his 100th career point, making the 20-year-old the youngest player in Ducks history to reach that milestone. Troy Terry got his team-leading 15th assist of the season on Carlsson’s goal.
Lukas Dostal made 32 saves in a matchup of first-place teams.
The one goal matched a season-low for the Ducks, who entered the game averaging an NHL-best 4.13 goals per game.
Landeskog’s second-period goal, which gave Colorado a 2-1 lead, was his first in the regular season since March 5, 2022. The 32-year-old left wing had missed the entire 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, as well as the 2024-25 regular season, after undergoing a series of knee surgeries. After the goal, the home crowd serenaded him with chants of “Landy.”
Scott Wedgewood stopped 35 of the 36 Anaheim shots he faced for his NHL-leading 10th win of the season. It was the seventh time in 14 starts this season that Wedgewood has allowed one or fewer goals.
Artturi Lehkonen, Martin Necas and Parker Kelly also scored for Colorado, with Lehkonen’s goal coming just 28 seconds into the first period. MacKinnon’s three assists gave him 32 points for the season, the most in the NHL.
With the win, the Avalanche are 6-0-1 in their last seven games and improved to 16-1-2 in their last 19 meetings against the Ducks.
Otherwise, risk missing the master class that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is conducting this season.
One that has the 17th-year pro squarely in the conversation for his first NFL most valuable player award.
“I see those people say stuff like that,” Stafford said Sunday after passing for four touchdowns in the Rams’ 42-26 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, “and all I can think about is like I’m just lucky to have unbelievable teammates.”
Share via
Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Stafford, 37, is playing as if he were in the middle, not near the end, of a possible Hall of Fame career.
On Sunday he tossed touchdown passes to receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and tight ends Davis Allen and Colby Parkinson as the Rams avenged an overtime loss to the 49ers in Week 5 and improved to 7-2.
How efficient has Stafford played this season?
He has passed for a league-leading 25 touchdowns.
With only two interceptions.
“He can walk on water right now,” Nacua said.
In the last three games, Stafford has passed for 13 touchdowns. His second touchdown pass Sunday, to Allen, was the 400th of his career.
Stafford’s name already fills the NFL record book. He is among the top 10 in several passing categories. But he never has been this efficient for this long.
Stafford has not had a pass intercepted in the last six games, the longest such stretch of his career.
“It looks like the game is really in slow motion to him right now,” coach Sean McVay said.
Rams players (from left) Puka Nacua, Matthew Stafford, Jordan Whittington and Davante Adams celebrate in the third quarter of a 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.
(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
Stafford’s recent run of excellence is on par with other awe-inspiring Los Angeles sports icons.
He has been as dominant as the UCLA fast break and full court press from the 1970s. Clayton Kershaw’s 12-to-6 curveball. Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer swing.
This is a Wayne Gretzky assist. A Nolan Ryan no-hitter.
A Reggie Bush breakaway run. A Serena Williams backhand winner. A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sky hook, a Magic Johnson no-look pass, a Kobe Bryant game-winning three. A Lisa Leslie low-post move. A Candace Parker dunk.
A Jim Murray or Bill Plaschke column.
A fill-in-the-blank run of excellence.
Overblown? Perhaps. The NFL is a humbling league. Stafford’s recent run could end next Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.
So enjoy it in real time. Follow Stafford’s lead.
“I have fun out there,” he said when asked about what Nacua described as Stafford’s ‘shimmy shake’ touchdown celebration. “I lose my mind when we score touchdowns.”
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford smiles while being interviewed after the Rams’ win over the 49ers on Sunday.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
That’s how defensive coordinators must feel when Stafford completes one of his patented no-look passes.
Adams played eight seasons in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. He knows what an MVP looks like.
“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year,” Adams said, pointing to a Week 2 game against the Tennessee Titans, when Stafford shook off an interception and led the Rams to victory. “Just to rally a team and continue to lead at a high level when things don’t go your way, I think that’s what really shows what an MVP is like.”
Stafford’s success harks to 2021, when he passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title. He is on pace for an even more impressive statistical finish.
“The heater that he’s on, it’s elevating everybody else’s play,” Nacua said, “and we’re continuing to jump on that bandwagon with him and let him take us as far as he can.”
If Stafford continues his stellar play the Rams could find themselves right back here at Levi’s Stadium.
ATLANTA — With the Lakers down by 20 in the third quarter at Atlanta, the only sound coming from their bench was Nick Smith Jr.’s hollow claps of encouragement. The rest of the Lakers sat with slumped shoulders on the bench or loitered with blank faces in a semicircle waiting for their coaches to join.
There wasn’t much that could be said.
The Lakers’ five-game winning streak ended in a blowout as the Hawks dominated 122-102 on Saturday at State Farm Arena.
Playing a third consecutive game without Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic tried to keep the Lakers (7-3) in it with 22 points, 11 assists and five rebounds, but all his points came in the first half and he came out after only 27 minutes as the Hawks built a 25-point lead by the middle of the third quarter. Forward Jake LaRavia had 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals, and Jarred Vanderbilt had 18 rebounds, one shy of his career high.
“This isn’t the identity of this team,” LaRavia said. “This game was an outlier of the first 10 games that we played. [We have to] just not let it break us and be ready to play the next game.”
The Lakers, who won their first four road games, started their five-game trip on a sour note and now need to bounce back when play Charlotte on Monday.
The Hawks (5-5) were playing the second game of a home back-to-back after losing to the Toronto Raptors on Friday. They had four of five starters sidelined, including Trae Young (knee), Kristaps Porzingis (rest) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (back).
The Lakers should know the dangers of a desperate, shorthanded team. Only five days ago they ended Portland’s three-game winning streak without Reaves, Doncic or LeBron James. Coach JJ Redick said he would reiterate the lesson before Saturday’s game to avoid a letdown.
Then the Lakers fell behind by 13 in the first quarter. Their deficit ballooned to 26 after three quarters. Redick began sitting his starters by the middle of the third.
“Just not a lot to like tonight,” Redick said matter-of-factly.
Facing a cross-country trip, the Lakers arrived in Atlanta on Thursday and scheduled a practice Friday with a team-bonding activity that night. They held a shootaround in the arena Saturday morning.
Yet even with the extra time to prepare, Redick could tell within the first two minutes that the team didn’t have the necessary energy to win. What did the coach see during that fateful stretch?
“Nothing,” Redick said.
Atlanta Hawks guard Vit Krejci shoots between Lakers center Deandre Ayton and forward Rui Hachimura in the first half Saturday.
(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)
It was the final word of his news conference, which lasted 100 seconds.
Doncic helped lead a quick third-quarter surge, assisting on three consecutive baskets in a 7-0 run that cut the lead to nine, but the Hawks responded by scoring seven unanswered points and forcing two turnovers. Center Deandre Ayton subbed out for the last time with 8:49 to go in the third.
“They played phenomenal,” said Ayton, who had 11 points on five-for-five shooting and five rebounds. “But us not even damn near competing in a sense, it looks bad on paper and it looks bad on film. This is one of them games where yeah, food’s going to taste bad tonight.”
Doncic and Marcus Smart, another veteran leader, were not made available to reporters after the game.
Atlanta’s Mouhamed Gueye torched the Lakers for 21 points on eight-for-12 shooting and made four three-pointers. The Lakers, who had credited their connection and chemistry for carrying them through long stints without their stars, suddenly fell silent when faced with a large deficit in front of a rowdy crowd.
With most of Atlanta’s fans streaming toward the exits in the final two minutes, the Hawks’ most dedicated fan group, the “404 Crew,” echoed through the mostly empty arena with a final chant: “Where is LeBron?”
The superstar has yet to play a single minute this season because of a bout with sciatica.
