Baker Mayfield comes home to Texas to face Cowboys with eye on getting Bucs to playoffs

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Leading an NFL team into his home state of Texas isn't new for Baker Mayfield.

Helping his team on a big step toward the playoffs while playing so close to his roots would be new for the Tampa Bay quarterback.

A four-game winning streak has the Buccaneers (8-6) atop the NFC South, where they will try to stay by themselves against Dallas on Sunday night.

The Cowboys (6-8) are close to elimination, which would end a three-year playoff run for a club that lost star QB Dak Prescott to a season-ending hamstring injury after eight games.

It will be Mayfield's second game at AT&T Stadium — the other was a 49-38 victory with Cleveland in front of a pandemic-restricted crowd four years ago.

“There’s a lot of memories that I have,” said Mayfield, who won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma and played high school football in the Austin area. “I played a state championship game in high school there, Big 12 championship there. It’s close enough to Oklahoma that you always see a lot of Sooner jerseys in there. For me, it’s special.”

Mayfield lost twice in Houston, the first time as the rookie No. 1 overall pick when the Browns never were in serious playoff contention.

A year ago, Mayfield's Bucs dropped to 3-5 with a loss to the Texans before a late-season surge to the division title and a wild-card victory.

The path is similar this time around, and Tampa Bay is coming off a resounding 40-17 victory over the AFC playoff-contending Los Angeles Chargers.

“We didn’t listen when we were losing. We’re not listening now that we’re winning, so that’s not going to be a big deal,” coach Todd Bowles said. “We have enough sarcastic coaches and sarcastic players to insult people to keep everybody grounded so that we’re all ready to work, so that’s not a problem at all.”

The postseason has been a pipe dream for the Cowboys for about a month now, but they've won three out of four anyway with coach Mike McCarthy on an expiring contract.

This season is likely to end with four starters on injured reserve — Prescott, seven-time All-Pro right guard Zack Martin (ankle), 2021 All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs (knee) and four-time Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.

“Obviously, it’s important to live, learn and apply to the future. I do enjoy these questions, because I am a philosopher,” McCarthy said, trying to keep a straight face. “We need to beat Tampa. At the end of the day, our job is to create the culture, make sure the team is being trained properly and make sure our guys are getting everything they need to win football games.”

Cooper Rush is set for his seventh start in place of Prescott and is coming off a career-best three touchdown passes in a 30-14 victory at Carolina.

Rush's first career start — and win — was on a Sunday night in Minnesota three years ago. Of his 13 starts, this is set to be the sixth in prime time.

“I’ve been here a long time,” Rush said. “I’m kinda used to the schedule of these late night games. That helps, being around for awhile. Me and my brother actually joke about, for some reason, I have a ridiculous amount of prime-time starts for how many starts I have. The ratio is kinda funny.”

The Bucs' winning streak has come after they lost five of six. Last season, a 5-1 finish to clinch a third consecutive NFC South title followed a stretch of six losses in seven games.

Tampa Bay is 8-1 in December/January regular-season games going back to 2023 and 20-5 in such games since 2020, the first of Tom Brady’s three years in Tampa Bay.

Star edge rusher Micah Parsons of the Cowboys has been promising he would make it to 10 sacks for the fourth time in his four seasons despite missing four games with a high ankle sprain. He's at 8 1/2, looking to become the fifth player to have double-digit sacks in each of his first four years. The other four are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“For me it’s just being resilient and proving people wrong,” said Parsons, who had just one sack when he returned from the injury in the season's ninth game. “I still feel like I’m still trying to prove myself in this league, and I feel like I’ll never lose that chip.”

Bucs running back Bucky Irving, who leads all NFL rookies with 852 yards rushing while sharing the workload with starter Rachaad White, is not the only 2024 draft pick playing key roles.

Center Graham Barton, wide receiver Jalen McMillan (22 receptions, 279 yards, four TDs) and safety Tykee Smith (tied for team lead with two interceptions) are starters, while linebacker Chris Braswell has appeared in every game.

“The way the league is going right now, coming out of college you don’t get the luxury of sitting everybody for a year or two behind somebody else,” Bowles said. “If you’re drafting seven guys, at least four of them better be significant players right now, and the other three better have a skill set for the near future or something down the line.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving (7) carries during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons leaves the field after their win against the Carolina Panthers in an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush celebrates after a touchdown by wide receiver Jalen Tolbert during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield walks off the field after a win over the Los Angeles Chargers in an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls who vanished during a winter hike was sentenced to a maximum of 130 years in prison Friday in the case that’s long cast a shadow over the teens’ small hometown of Delphi.

A special judge sentenced Richard Allen during a hearing that began at 9 a.m. Allen, 52, was convicted on Nov. 11 in the killings of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, known as Abby and Libby. A jury found him guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.

Allen was sentenced on two of the four murder counts by Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, who imposed the maximum of 65 years for each count, to be served consecutively. The sentencing hearing, which included victim impact statements from six relatives of the teens, lasted less than two hours and after it concluded one of Allen’s defense attorneys said they plan to appeal and seek a new trial.

“Thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims. What they went through was unimaginable,” defense attorney Jennifer Auger said. She added that the defense plans to give a more detailed statement later, “but today is not the day for that.”

Allen had faced between 45 years and 130 years in prison in the killings of the Delphi teens.

Allen also lived in Delphi and when he was arrested in October 2022, more than five years after the killings, he was employed as a pharmacy technician at a pharmacy only blocks from the county courthouse where he later stood trial. His weekslong trial came after repeated delays, a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of his public defenders and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court.

The case, which included tantalizing evidence, has long drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts. The teens were found dead in February 2017, their throats cut, one day after they vanished while hiking during a day off school.

Gull, the special judge who oversaw Allen's trial, came from northeastern Indiana’s Allen County, as did the jury.

The seven women and five men were sequestered throughout the trial, which began Oct. 18 in the Carroll County seat of Delphi, the girls’ hometown of about 3,000 residents some 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.

Allen's trial came after repeated delays, a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of his public defenders and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court.

The case, which included tantalizing evidence, has long drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts.

A relative dropped the teens off at a hiking trail just outside Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017. The eighth graders didn't arrive at the agreed pickup location and were reported missing that evening. Their bodies were found the next day with their throats cut in a wooded area near an abandoned railroad trestle they had crossed.

In his closing arguments, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors that Allen, armed with a gun, forced the youths off the hiking trail and had planned to rape them before a passing van made him change his plans and he cut their throats. McLeland said an unspent bullet found between the teens’ bodies “had been cycled through” Allen’s .40-caliber Sig Sauer handgun.

An Indiana State Police firearms expert told the jury her analysis tied the round to Allen’s handgun.

McLeland said Allen was the man seen following the teens across the Monon High Bridge in a grainy cellphone video German had recorded. And he said it was Allen’s voice that could be heard on that video telling the teens, “ Down the hill ″ after they crossed the bridge.

“Richard Allen is Bridge Guy,” McLeland told jurors. “He kidnapped them and later murdered them.”

McLeland also noted that Allen had repeatedly confessed to the killings — in person, on the phone and in writing. In one of the recordings he replayed for the jury, Allen could be heard telling his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

Allen’s defense argued that his confessions were unreliable because he was facing a severe mental health crisis while under the pressure and stress of being locked up in isolation, watched 24 hours a day and taunted by people incarcerated with him. A psychiatrist called by the defense testified that months in solitary confinement could make a person delirious and psychotic.

Defense attorney Bradley Rozzi said in his closing arguments that Allen was innocent. He said no witness explicitly identified Allen as the man seen on the hiking trail or the bridge the afternoon the girls went missing. He also said no fingerprint, DNA or forensic evidence links Allen to the murder scene.

Allen’s lawyers had sought to argue during the trial that the girls were killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a white nationalist group known as the Odinists who follow a pagan Norse religion. The judge, however, ruled against that, saying the defense “failed to produce admissible evidence” of such a connection.

Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the sentencing of Richard Allen, convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls , in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

FILE - Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter announces the arrest of Richard Allen for the murders of two teenage girls killed in 2017, during a news conference in Delphi, Ind., Oct. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

FILE - Officers escort Richard Allen out of the Carroll County Courthouse following a hearing, Nov. 22, 2022, in Delphi, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)