Andrew Luck threw two touchdown passes and Adam Vinatieri made a tie-breaking 55-yard field goal with 6:13 to play, giving Indianapolis a surprising 27-24 victory over Denver.
The Colts (4-5) ended a three-game losing streak and stayed atop the AFC South by ruining Peyton Manning’s return to Indy again. Denver (7-1) was the only unbeaten team to lose this weekend.
Luck was brilliant, going 21 of 36 for 252 yards. He broke a 17-17 tie with a TD pass early in the fourth quarter, then helped snap a 24-24 tie by setting up Vinatieri for the field goal on the next drive. Indy ran out the final 5:57.
Manning was 21 of 36 for 281 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. He couldn’t break Brett Favre’s record for regular-season wins (186) by a quarterback and fell three yards short of becoming the NFL’s career passing leader.
In Sunday’s other later starts there were wins for the Giants and 49ers.
Blaine Gabbert threw a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes to Garrett Celek and the undermanned 49ers held on to beat the Atlanta Falcons 17-16.
The 49ers (3-6) head into the bye on a winning note after a week of change. Making his first start in more than two years, Gabbert didn’t take a sack behind an offensive line that has faced heavy scrutiny all year.
Celek made TD catches of one and 11 yards to give him three on the year and San Francisco’s stout defense flustered Matt Ryan despite the patchwork use of backups because of a rash of injuries.
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Gabbert threw an interception midway through the fourth quarter, giving Atlanta (6-3) another chance with 7:14 to go. After an incompletion, Ryan hit six straight throws, but eventually missed Julio Jones in the end zone and Atlanta kicked a field goal and fell just short.
Meanwhile, Eli Manning threw for 213 yards and two touchdowns, helping the first-place New York Giants rebound from last week’s road debacle at New Orleans with a 32-18 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Josh Brown booted four field goals for the Giants (5-4), including fourth-quarter kicks of 53 and 44 yards that gave New York some breathing room after the Bucs (3-5) pulled within two points.
Manning threw first-half TD passes of 8 yards to Reuben Randle and four yards to Shane Vereen. The Giants defense, bolstered by the return of Jason Pierre-Paul, did its part by keeping the Jameis Winston-led Tampa Bay offense out of the end zone until the rookie scrambled 10 yards for a TD that made it 20-18 with 9:25 remaining.
Winston’s two-point conversion pass to the rear of the end zone was caught out of bounds. The Giants sealed the victory with Brown’s third and fourth field goals, plus Trevin Wade’s fumble recovery on the game’s final play.
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