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Blocked field goals. Botched holds. Bad snaps.
Wacky special teams contributed to wild finishes, upsets and more in Week 5.
NFL coaches always emphasize how it takes all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — to win games. That’s not a cliche. One big play can make all the difference. It happened across the league on Sunday.
Giants safety Isaiah Simmons blocked the potential tying field goal in the final minute and Bryce Ford-Wheaton returned it 60 yards for the clinching touchdown, helping underdog New York hold on for a 29-20 win at Seattle.
“I think this is my craziest play I ever made,” said Simmons, who leaped through a hole over a blocked lineman. “I think it’s just the fact that I jumped over.”
The 49ers benefited from cornerback Deommodore Lenoir returning a blocked field goal by Jordan Elliott for a 61-yard score. But San Francisco lost kicker Jake Moody to an ankle injury in the first half, and ended up having to go on fourth-and-23 from the 27 in the third quarter instead of letting punter Mitch Wishnowsky attempt a 45-yarder in a 24-23 loss to Arizona. Wishnowsky was good from 26 yards at the end of the second quarter.
“It (Moody’s injury) impacted it but the biggest thing was those turnovers,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said about an interception and fumble.
The Bengals blew three 10-point leads in the second half but still had a chance to defeat Baltimore in overtime when Evan McPherson lined up for a 53-yard attempt after Lamar Jackson lost a fumble. However, his kick sailed wide because holder Ryan Rehkow mishandled the snap.
“The snap was good. The snap came back really clean,” Rehkow said. “I think I just tried to get it down a little too quick, give Evan enough time to look at it, and I just didn’t get it down cleanly.”
McPherson refused to blame the rookie, saying he should’ve make the kick anyway.
The Ravens won a 41-38 shootout that featured nine TD passes combined from Jackson and Joe Burrow on Justin Tucker’s 24-yard field goal. Tucker connected on a 56-yarder with 1:35 remaining to send the game to overtime.
Miami’s special teams had an awful first half in New England but the Dolphins overcame a blocked punt, a bounced snap that led to one missed field goal and another field goal try that hit an upright.
They escaped with a 15-10 victory over the Patriots when Ja’Lynn Polk’s go-ahead TD catch with 1:02 left was overturned after replays showed his second heel came down on the end line.
The Texans beat Buffalo 23-20 thanks to superb kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who nailed a 59-yard field goal as time expired. Fairbairn also connected from 50 and 47, improving to 11 for 12 this season.
“It’s comforting to know you have a guy who can hit it at that critical moment,” Houston coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It’s clutch time and he stood up. He didn’t waver. He put it through the uprights. It’s comforting for everyone to know wherever we are, ‘Imi’ can make a play. When you’re in that situation, not a lot of time left, we know we got to get down quickly and we know we’re kicking it, wherever we end up we got to take a shot at it.”
Fairbairn had a chance to win it because punter Tommy Townsend pinned the Bills at the 3 with a 46-yard punt. Buffalo, which rallied from a 20-3 deficit, then mismanaged the clock after taking possession with just 32 seconds left.
Josh Allen threw three straight incomplete passes, using up only 16 seconds. Robert Woods returned the punt 13 yards to the Bills 46. C.J. Stroud completed a 5-yard pass, setting up Fairbairn’s kick.
“There’s a potential if the situation goes three straight runs, you run 6 seconds off potential each time, you may be in a similar situation,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said, explaining the strategy to pass three times because Houston had all of its timeouts. “So, either way, we got to do a better job and that starts with me 100%.”
Another blocked field goal almost played a role in the outcome in the final game of the day but the Cowboys got away with letting Pittsburgh swat down Brandon Aubrey’s 38-yard try in the third quarter. Dak Prescott tossed a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert in the final minute to lift the Cowboys to a 20-17 victory over the Steelers.
That made six games where the game-winning score came in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
San Francisco 49ers' Jordan Elliott (92) blocks a field goal attempt by Arizona Cardinals place kicker Chad Ryland, right, that 49ers' Deommodore Lenoir returned for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
New York Giants wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton (88) runs for a touchdown after a Seattle Seahawks blocked field goal attempt during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day's outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”
The House approved Johnson's new bill overwhelmingly, 366-34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it, 85-11, just after the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had ceased shutdown preparations.
“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said after the House vote, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”
President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a turbulent week, was expected to sign the measure into law Saturday.
“There will be no government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The final product was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work alongside Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar.
Trump's last-minute demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to work around his pressure for a debt ceiling increase. The speaker knew there wouldn’t be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any funding package, since many Republican deficit hawks prefer to slash federal government and certainly wouldn’t allow more debt.
Instead, the Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with the routine operations of governing.
“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” scoffed Musk on social media ahead of the vote.
The drastically slimmed-down 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.
Gone is Trump’s demand to lift the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be debated as part of their tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans made a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.
It’s essentially the same deal that flopped the night before in a spectacular setback — opposed by most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans — minus Trump’s debt ceiling demand.
But it's far smaller than the original bipartisan accord Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was stuffed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.
House Democrats were cool to the latest effort after Johnson reneged on the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it looked like Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, was calling the shots for Trump and Republicans.
“Who is in charge?” she asked during the debate.
Still, the House Democrats put up more votes than Republicans for the bill's passage. Almost three dozen conservative House Republicans voted against it.
“The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working-class Americans all across the nation,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, referring to Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan.
In the Senate, almost all the opposition came from the Republicans — except independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Musk's interference was “not democracy, that's oligarchy.”
Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency.
The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees and is counting on Republicans for a big tax package. And Trump's not fearful of shutdowns the way lawmakers are, having sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted early in the morning on social media.
More important for the president-elect was his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn't want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation's borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a new five-year debt limit increase. "Without this, we should never make a deal."
Government workers had already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of employees — and members of the military — into the holiday season without paychecks.
Biden has been in discussions with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this.”
As the day dragged on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how harmful it is to shut the government down, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it.”
At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans at a lunchtime meeting for a show of hands as they tried to choose the path forward.
It wasn’t just the shutdown, but the speaker’s job on the line. The speaker’s election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, and some Trump allies have floated Musk for speaker.
Johnson said he spoke to Musk ahead of the vote Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Capitol is pictured in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., talks with reporters after attending a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., as the House works on a spending bill to avert a shutdown of the Federal Government, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
FILE - President-elect Donald Trump poses for a photo with Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. The vote failed to pass. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
