Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 12-18-20

Sports
Bucs Take Advantage Of Missed Kicks, Penalties In 26-14 Win Vs. Vikings
Green Bay Packers Clinch NFC North With Win Over Detroit Lions
Raymond James Stadium is no stranger to missed kicks, but this time, it wasn’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers strug- gling to put the ball between the uprights.
Three missed field goals and a missed extra point by Dan Bailey helped doom the Minnesota Vikings against the Bucs on Sunday, as Tampa Bay took full advantage of their many gifts on the way to a 26-14 victory.
Both teams committed five penalties, but the Vikings gave the Bucs twice the yardage, in- cluding multiple fouls in criti- cal moments that led directly to points for Tampa Bay.
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins was sacked six times, with half of them com- ing in key moments in the final minutes of the game to
TOM BRADY
help the Bucs seal a huge vic- tory with playoff implications. Tom Brady tossed a pair of touchdown passes and Ronald Jones, II rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown as the Bucs moved to 8-5 on the season, keeping pace in the NFC wild-card race and pre- venting the Vikings from
leapfrogging them.
The Tampa Bay defense
bent for much of the game,
but refused to break, giving up plenty of yardage between the 20s, but keeping the Vikings out of the end zone and forc- ing them into all of those missed kicks.
Antoine Winfield, Jr.
had a stellar performance against his father’s old team, leading the Bucs with nine tackles, including a strip-sack of Cousins in the fourth quarter. Shaq Barrett bagged a pair of sacks, and Jason Pierre-Paul sealed the victory with a fourth-down strip-sack of his own, recover- ing the ball himself.
The victory ends Tampa Bay’s only losing streak of the season so far at just two games and keeps them in control of their own destiny in the play- off race heading into the final three games of the season.
The Green Bay Packers won their second straight NFC North title with a 31-24 victory over the Lions at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday.
With the win, the Packers took a four-game lead in the division with three to play, so that race is over. They also tied the Saints for the top record in the NFC at 10-3 after New Or- leans lost at Philadelphia. Technically, the Packers hold
AARON ROGERS
the No. 1 seed due to their head-to-head win over the Saints back in Week 3.
Chiefs Win Fifth Straight AFC West Division Title
For the fifth consecutive season, the Kansas City Chiefs are atop of the mountain of the AFC West.
The Chiefs secured their franchise-best fifth-straight title in a 33-27 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium, the set- ting of the franchise's first Super Bowl victory in 50 years.
“Listen, they don’t give those away,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said about the divisional championship after the game. “They give the hats away, but they don’t give these championships away. I’m proud of the guys for that. We all know we need to keep going. It’s a nice accomplish- ment.”
PATRICK MAHOMES
The title extends the previ- ous franchise record for con- secutive division titles from four to five. Until the current streak, the Chiefs had not won the AFC West in back-to-back seasons.
With the fifth win this sea- son, they are the third team to accomplish the feat, joining the 1972-1976 Oakland Raiders and the 2011-2015 Denver Broncos.
Jalen Hurts Wins 1st QB
Start As Philadelphia Eagles
Stun New Orleans Saints
Rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts gave the Eagles' offense the jolt coach Doug Peder- son was looking for, using his arm and legs to power Philadelphia to a 24-21 upset win over the New Orleans Saints, who saw their nine- game winning streak come to an end.
Making his first start in place of the struggling Carson Wentz, Hurts went 17-for-30 for 167 yards and a touchdown and ran 18 times for 106 yards. The Saints had gone 56 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, the longest such streak in the Super Bowl era.
The Eagles (4-8-1) not only busted that up but also had two players go past the century mark, as Miles Sanders ran 14 times for 115 yards and two
JALEN HURTS
scores, including an 82-yard TD sprint to put the Eagles up 17-0 at the half. That was their first 17-point lead since Week 1.
"He played awesome, man. The tape [speaks] for itself," Sanders said of Hurts. "He's so confident. He's a natural leader. We just needed that, and he gave us that spark starting from last week [against the Green Bay Pack- ers]."
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