BALTIMORE (AP) — Justin Tucker kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired, giving the Baltimore Ravens a 31-30 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday night in a rematch of the AFC championship game.
When the teams met in January, the Patriots squeezed out a three-point win at home to advance to the Super Bowl. The stakes weren’t nearly as high in this one, yet the game was eerily similar.
In the previous meeting, Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal in the closing seconds. In the encore, Tucker — who took the job away from Cundiff in training camp — drove his kick inside the right upright.
The game-winning kick followed a pass interference call against Devin McCourty on Jacoby Jones.
Torrey Smith, who was playing less than 24 hours after the death of his 19-year-old brother, had six catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns for the Ravens.
Baltimore (2-1) won its 12th straight at home behind Joe Flacco, who went 28 for 39 for 382 yards and three touchdowns.
Tom Brady completed 28 of 41 passes for 335 yards and a score for the Patriots (1-2).
Former Richmond Raider Dannell Ellerbe had eight tackles, including 1 1/2 sacks for the Ravens.
FALCONS 27, CHARGERS 3
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Matt Ryan threw touchdown passes to three different receivers and safety Thomas DeCoud had two interceptions and a fumble recovery for the Atlanta Falcons, who overwhelmed the San Diego Chargers 27-3 Sunday to remain undefeated.
Ryan completed 30 of 40 passes for 275 yards, with his first interception of the season, and a passer rating of 107.8 for the Falcons (3-0), who improved to 6-0 all-time in San Diego. DeCoud’s three takeaways, plus William Moore’s fourth-quarter fumble recovery, extended the Falcons’ NFL-high turnover differential to plus-10.
San Diego (2-1) was the third straight AFC West team to lose to Atlanta.
Ryan threw touchdown passes of 8 yards to Jacquizz Rodgers, 7 to Tony Gonzalez and 9 to Julio Jones. The first two scores came after drives of 80 and 96 yards.
Ryan Mathews made his season debut for San Diego and looked good until fumbling inside the Falcons’ 5-yard line on a hit by Sean Witherspoon, with DeCoud recovering. That set up a monster 17-play, 96-yard drive that ate 7 minutes, 59 and was capped by Gonzalez’s TD catch.
Former Richmond and South Carolina standout Melvin Ingram was credited with two tackles, one solo stop in the contest for the Chargers.
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