The 7.5 point underdog Philadelphia Eagles pulled one out of the fire this past Sunday afternoon when backup quarterback Nick Foles tossed a 1 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin to clinch a 23 – 21 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This certified “Fantastic Finish” snaps a 7 game, 70 day, losing streak for the Eagles and may just have bought some time for head coach Andy Reid. Foles threw for 381 yards and rushed for 27 more while replacing an injured Michael Vick.
The Cincinnati Bengals played host to the Dallas Cowboys and were favored to win the contest by 3.5 points. They led by 3 at halftime and by 9 at the end of the third quarter, but the Cowboys shut them out in the fourth and Tony Romo completed a 27 yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant with 3:12 remaining. Dan Bailey makes the extra point but the Cowboys were still trailing by 2 points with less than 3 minutes to go. The Dallas defense stepped up with a sack, the Bengals were forced to punt and Romo moved the Cowboys 50 yards in 13 plays to give Dan Bailey a chance to kick the winning field goal with time running out. Final score Cowboys 20, Bengals 19. The Bengals and the Cowboys go into week 15 with identical 7-6 records.
The biggest upset of the week came to us from Charlotte, North Carolina where the 3-9 Panthers took on the 11-1 division leading Atlanta Falcons. Cam Newton passed for 287 yards and ran for an additional 116 including a 72 yard touchdown run to bring down the Falcons by a final score of 30-20.
The “Fantastic Finish” of the day, however, goes to the Washington Red Skins. Washington went into the game as 2.5 point favorites but the Baltimore Ravens led by 21-14 at halftime in a classic AFC – NFC rival game. With the Redskins trailing by eight points late in the game, RGIII scrambled for 13 yards but sprained his right knee when he was tackled. Griffin tried valiantly to stay in the game but eventually fell to the ground and had to be replaced by fellow rookie quarterback Kirk Cousins who not only stepped up to throw an 11 yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon with just 29 seconds on the clock, he then took the ball into the end zone himself on a quarterback draw to make the 2 point conversion and tie the contest at 28 to send it into overtime. Kai Forbath iced the game for the Redskins with a winning field goal of 34 yards. What a game!
