Defensive back Antrel Rolle #26 of the New York Giants returns his second interception of the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on October 14, 2012 in San Francisco, California. The Giants won 26-3.
(October 13, 2012 – Source: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images North America)

Giants 26, 49ers 3

(PhatzRadio / AP / CBC Sports) — SAN FRANCISCO — Antrel Rolle intercepted two passes by Alex Smith, Prince Amukamara picked off another and the Giants shut down San Francisco in a 26-3 victory over the 49ers on Sunday in a rematch of last season’s NFC championship game.

After outscoring the Bills and Jets by a combined 79-3 the last two weeks, the 49ers (4-2) met their match again with Eli Manning and New York’s top team. No overtime needed this time, and not much of Manning either.

Manning threw for 193 yards and one touchdown, Ahmad Bradshaw ran for 116 yards and a score and the Giants (4-2) rode a dominant defence and four field goals by Lawrence Tynes to hand outspoken 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh the most lopsided loss of his tenure.

Packers 42, Texans 24

HOUSTON — Aaron Rodgers set a career high and tied a franchise record with six touchdown passes, three to Jordy Nelson, and the Green Bay Packers routed the previously unbeaten Houston Texans 42-24 in the Sunday nighter.

James Jones caught two touchdown passes for the Packers (3-3). Tom Crabtree had the other one, a 48-yarder that Rodgers threw just before taking a hit from Houston linebacker Brooks Reed.

Rodgers completed 24 of 37 passes for 338 yards. He tied Matt Flynn’s game record for TD passes, set in last year’s regular-season finale against Detroit.

The Texans (5-1) came in with the league’s third-ranked defence. Arian Foster scored two touchdowns for Houston.

Seahawks 24, Patriots 23

SEATTLE — Russell Wilson found Sidney Rice behind the secondary for a 46-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining, and the Seattle Seahawks rallied for 14 points in the final 7:31 to stun the New England Patriots 24-23.

The matchup between the Patriots’ No. 1 ranked offence and Seattle’s No. 1 defence instead turned in to a starring performance for Wilson — and a shocking rally.

Wilson hit Braylon Edwards on fourth down for a 10-yard TD to get the Seahawks’ within 23-17. After a pair of holds by Seattle’s defense, Wilson found Rice open on a double move. Steven Hauschka’s extra point gave Seattle the lead.

Tom Brady and the Patriots (3-3) were then stopped on fourth down at their 28 when Wes Welker came up 2 yards short, and the Seahawks (4-2) were able to celebrate the unlikely comeback.

Bills 19, Cardinals 16 (OT)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jairus Byrd’s second interception of the game set up Rian Lindell’s 25-yard field goal 3:50 into overtime that gave the Buffalo Bills a 19-16 victory over the Cardinals.

The loss ended Arizona’s eight-game home winning streak.

Byrd picked off a pass from John Skelton, who had replaced the injured Kevin Kolb, and returned it 29 yards to the Arizona 6 to set up the winning kick.

Arizona’s Jay Feely kicked a franchise-record 61-yard field goal with 1:09 left in regulation to tie it 16-16, but his 38-yard attempt to win it as the fourth quarter ended careened off the left upright.

The Cardinals (4-2) lost their second in a row after a 4-0 start. The Bills (3-3) won after allowing 1,201 yards and 97 points in their previous two games.

Redskins 38, Vikings 26

LANDOVER, Md. — Robert Griffin III ran for 138 yards and two touchdowns, including a 76-yard scamper with 2:43 to play, and the Washington Redskins snapped an eight-game home losing streak with a 38-26 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

One week after he left the game early with his first NFL concussion, Griffin also completed 17 of 22 passes for 182 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

The Redskins (3-3) feasted on a Minnesota team that had not allowed more than 23 points in a game this season.

Minnesota’s three-game winning streak ended. The Vikings are 4-2.

Minnesota held an early 9-0 lead but paid the price for getting field goals instead of touchdowns in the red zone.

Christian Ponder completed 35 of 52 passes for 352 yards.

Ravens 31, Cowboys 29

BALTIMORE — Jacoby Jones tied an NFL record with a 108-yard kickoff return, and the Baltimore Ravens held on to beat the Dallas Cowboys 31-29 Sunday for their 14th straight regular-season home win on Sunday.

Dallas ran for 227 yards, most ever against the Ravens, and totaled 481 yards offense. But the Cowboys (2-3) missed a 2-point conversion after closing to 31-29 with 32 seconds left.

Dallas recovered the onside kick, and Dan Bailey was wide left on a 51-yard field goal try with :06 remaining.

Ray Rice scored two touchdowns and Joe Flacco threw for a score to help the Ravens (5-1) secure their fourth consecutive victory and enhance their grip on first place in the AFC North. Baltimore’s home winning streak is the longest current run in the NFL.

Dallas held the ball for more than 40 minutes, but never led after halftime.

Falcons 23, Raiders 20

ATLANTA — Matt Bryant kicked his second game-winning field goal in three weeks, a 55-yarder with 1 second remaining, and the Atlanta Falcons remained unbeaten with a sloppy victory over the Oakland Raiders.

Overcoming Matt Ryan’s three interceptions, the Falcons (6-0) extended the best start in franchise history. But it wasn’t easy against the pesky Raiders (1-4).

Atlanta pulled ahead when Asante Samuel returned an interception 79 yards for a touchdown with 2:40 remaining, only to wind up tied again when Carson Palmer led Oakland down the field for a tying score. Darren McFadden powered in from the 2 with 40 seconds left.

That was just enough time for Ryan and Bryant to pull off another fourth-quarter victory. Ryan completed four passes to set up the winning kick.

Browns 34, Bengals 24

CLEVELAND — Rookie Brandon Weeden threw two touchdown passes and the Cleveland Browns snapped an 11-game losing streak that dated to last season, beating the Cincinnati Bengals .

Cleveland had not won since Nov. 20, matching a franchise record for consecutive losses. But for the first time this season everything fell into place for the Browns (1-5).

Montario Hardesty, filling in for injured rookie Trent Richardson, scored on a 1-yard plunge and cornerback Sheldon Brown intercepted Andy Dalton and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter as the Browns outscored the Bengals (3-3) in the second half 27-10.

It was the first win in nine tries against an AFC North opponent for second-year Browns coach Pat Shurmur.

Jason Hanson kicked a 45-yard field goal in overtime and the Detroit Lions rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26-23 on Sunday.

Held in check most of the game, Matthew Stafford led Detroit to 17 points in the fourth quarter. He threw a TD pass and ran for a score.

Detroit had two shots from the Eagles 1 after a pass interference penalty on Colt Anderson with 13 seconds left in regulation. But Stafford misfired on both passes and Hanson kicked a 19-yard field goal to send it to overtime.

Lions 26, Eagles 23 (OT)

PHILADELPHIA — Jason Hanson kicked a 45-yard field goal in overtime and the Detroit Lions rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles.

Held in check most of the game, Matthew Stafford led Detroit to 17 points in the fourth quarter. He threw a TD pass and ran for a score.

Detroit had two shots from the Eagles 1 after a pass interference penalty on Colt Anderson with 13 seconds left in regulation. But Stafford misfired on both passes and Hanson kicked a 19-yard field goal to send it to overtime.

The Lions (2-3) sacked Michael Vick on the first two plays of the extra quarter, forced a punt out of the end zone and started at midfield.

Stafford hit Calvin Johnson for a 17-yard gain to the Eagles 27 on first-and-20. A few plays later, Hanson nailed the game-winner.

The Eagles (3-3) head into their bye week with two straight losses.

Dolphins 17, Rams 14

MIAMI — Ryan Tannehill threw two touchdown passes and the Miami Dolphins withstood a late rally by the St. Louis Rams to win.

The Rams faced a fourth-and-8 at the Miami 49-yard line with 30 seconds left, and rather than go for a first down, coach Jeff Fisher sent out rookie Greg Zuerlein to try a 66-yard field goal, which missed wide left.

Zuerlein made two field goals to improve to 15 for 15 this season, but then missed three times in a row, including from 48 and 32 yards in the first half.

The Rams outgained the Dolphins 461 yards to 209.

Both teams are 3-3. Fisher lost to the team that courted him in January, when he chose the Rams job instead.

Bucs 38, Chiefs 10

TAMPA, Fla. — Josh Freeman threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns and Ronde Barber scored on a 78-yard interception return to help the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the struggling Kansas City Chiefs 38-10.

Freeman’s inconsistency has been an issue in a slow start for Tampa Bay, but the fourth-year pro is developing a touch on deep passes that’s sparked a sputtering offence over the past two games.

Freeman teamed with Mike Williams on a 62-yard scoring play in the first quarter and threw TD passes of 19 and 17 yards to Vincent Jackson in the second half as the Bucs (2-3) stopped a three-game losing streak.

The Bucs intercepted Brady Quinn twice in the Kansas City quarterback’s first start in nearly three years. They also limited NFL rushing leader Jamaal Charles to 40 yards on 12 carries.

Jets 35, Colts 9

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Shonn Greene ran for a career-high 161 yards and three touchdowns to power a rejuvenated “Ground-and-Pound” offence that rushed for more than 250 yards, Mark Sanchez was efficient and Tim Tebow made a few big plays in a 35-9 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

Even the Jets’ maligned defence was able to shut down Andrew Luck and the Colts’ offence as New York snapped a two-game losing streak that had many wondering if the season was about to spiral out of control.

For a week, at least, Sanchez was in total control and the Jets (3-3) had their best overall performance — save for a handful of personal foul penalties — since an opening-week rout of Buffalo.

Indianapolis (2-3) trailed 21-6 at halftime and couldn’t erase a big deficit for the second straight week after coming back from 18 points and beating Green Bay last Sunday.

Wilson leads Seattle past Patriots 24-23

SEATTLE (AP) — Tom Brady and the best offense in the NFL got upstaged by an undersized rookie.

In the final minutes, it was Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks making all the big plays.

“If guys didn’t believe in him,” Seattle safety Earl Thomas said, “I guarantee they believe in him now.”

Wilson found Sidney Rice behind the secondary for a 46-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining, and the Seahawks rallied for 14 points in the final 7:31 to stun the New England Patriots 24-23 Sunday.

The matchup between the Patriots’ No. 1 ranked offense and Seattle’s No. 1 defense instead turned in to a starring performance for Wilson. And a shocking rally that gave Pete Carroll a win in the first matchup against the franchise he coached for three seasons in the late 1990s. Carroll was bouncing around the sideline in celebration after one of his biggest pro victories.

“I hadn’t even thought about that. That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of games,” Carroll said. “I really love Robert Kraft, he’s a great man and he’s been great throughout the years about our separation of sorts. I respect the heck out of him. But I’m a competitor and, heck yeah, I want to win against those guys.”

Wilson hit Braylon Edwards on fourth down for a 10-yard TD to get the Seahawks within 23-17. After a pair of holds by Seattle’s defense, Wilson found Rice streaking open on a double move for his third touchdown pass of the game. Steven Hauschka ‘s extra point gave Seattle (4-2) the lead with 78 seconds remaining.

Brady had a final chance to make up for all the opportunities the Patriots (3-3) squandered. Starting at his 20 with 1:14 left, Brady missed Brandon Lloyd then was sacked by Jason Jones , the first sack all day by Seattle. His pass for Aaron Hernandez , back after being out since Week 2 with an ankle injury, was incomplete, and Wes Welker was stopped short on fourth down.

Seattle’s winning touchdown came after Carroll showed confidence in his defense. The Seahawks went three-and-out with 3:20 left and Carroll risked never seeing the ball again and punted.

Even though Seattle had three timeouts and the two-minute warning, it was still a risky proposition.

“I wasn’t surprised. As a defense we want the game on our shoulders,” Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “We have the confidence in us; we know Pete has the confidence in us.”

Seattle forced the Patriots into just their fifth three-and-out of the season and only 14 seconds elapsed before Zoltan Mesko punted. Leon Washington returned the punt 25 yards and Seattle started its winning drive at its 43.

Wilson faked a handoff and looked deep. Rice was on an option route, and the coverage directed Rice to the middle. After faking to the outside, he was wide open.

“It was a heck of a throw. When I came out of my break, the whole time I was looking at the ball in the air and it was so pretty,” Rice said. “I was just running, I was like `You’ve got to catch up to it, you’ve got to catch up to it,’ and I was able to track it down.”

Wilson finished 16 of 27 for 293 yards, the best day of his young career. He added Brady to an impressive list of quarterbacks he’s topped this year: Tony Romo , Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton . It was also the fifth time in six games Wilson found himself in a late drive with the game on the line.

“I think I’m always comfortable no matter the situation, I think I’m just more experienced,” Wilson said. “Being in those situations you have to trust what you see, you have to be quick with your decisions, but also believe in your decisions and just be decisive with the football.”

Brady finished 36 of 58 for 395 yards and touchdown passes of 1 yard to Hernandez and 46 yards to Welker in the first half. Welker had 10 catches for 138 yards, his fourth straight game over 100. Brady topped 300 yards passing for the 49th time, but was intercepted in the second half by Richard Sherman and Thomas after going 179 attempts without being picked off. One of Brady’s interceptions came in the end zone, yet another squandered chance by the Patriots.

New England came away with just one touchdown in six trips inside Seattle’s 20. The most damaging came at the end of the first half when coach Bill Belichick opted to throw with 6 seconds remaining instead of kicking the field goal from the Seattle 3. Brady was flagged for intentional grounding and the ensuing time runoff ended the half.

“You lose by one point and here are a lot of things we could have done better to not be in that situation,” Brady said.

Seattle’s defense gave up a season-high 475 yards after not allowing any of its first five opponents to top 300. The Patriots went eight consecutive drives without punting, and ran 85 offensive plays to the Seahawks’ 55, yet could not get the touchdowns to put Seattle away.

NOTES: Hall of Fame DT Cortez Kennedy had his No. 96 retired during a halftime ceremony. He joins Steve Largent (No. 80), Walter Jones (No. 71) and Seattle’s 12th Man crowd (No. 12) as the only retired jerseys in team history. … Lynch’s 41 yards were his fewest since Week 8 of 2011, when he was held to 24 yards by Cincinnati. … Brady’s 58 pass attempts were most ever against Seattle.

Rodgers throws 6 TDs in Packers’ rout of Houston

HOUSTON (AP) — This is more like it for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers .

The reigning MVP set a career high and tied a franchise record with six touchdown passes and the Packers played their best game of their so far inconsistent season, beating previously unbeaten Houston 42-24 on Sunday night.

Jordy Nelson caught three touchdown passes and James Jones had two, including a beautiful, diving one-hander in the fourth quarter for the Packers (3-3). Tight end Tom Crabtree had the other, a 48-yarder that Rodgers released just before taking a hit from Texans’ outside linebacker Brooks Reed .

Rodgers completed 24 of 37 passes for 338 yards. He tied Matt Flynn ‘s game record for TD passes, set in last year’s regular-season finale against Detroit with Rodgers resting on the sideline in advance of the playoffs.

The Packers heard criticism from fans in Green Bay all week after blowing a 21-3 halftime lead to the Indianapolis Colts last week. Another loss would have dropped them to 2-4 for the first time since 2006, and they missed the playoffs that season.

Instead, they put themselves right back in the thick of their divisional race.

“This was an important game for us,” Rodgers said. “We had a couple not go our way, games we should have won and 2-4 would have been very difficult.”

Arian Foster scored two touchdowns, but ran for only 29 yards for the Texans (5-1). The loss leaves the Atlanta Falcons (6-0) as the only unbeaten team in the NFL.

Rodgers came into the game with a 68.8 completion percentage, 10 touchdown passes and a 96.9 rating – not bad, but not quite his astonishing standard from last season. Green Bay’s offense came in ranked only 21st this year. Rodgers was openly disappointed in his own play, and the offensive line had also been an issue, allowing 21 sacks.

It somehow all came together against the league’s third-ranked defense.

“This is just a team that has a lot of pride in our locker room,” Rodgers said. “I said it this week, there’s not any quit in that locker room. It’s almost better when people are doubting us a little bit, I think. We kind of band together. People tried to pull us apart this week and we stuck together and found our motivation.”

Houston, meanwhile, badly missed star linebacker Brian Cushing , who was placed on injured reserve after tearing a knee ligament in last week’s 23-17 win over the New York Jets .

But there was more to the Texans’ collapse than just that.

Rookie DeVier Posey lined up offside on a Green Bay punt, resulting in a Packers’ first down. Rodgers then lofted a perfect pass to Nelson over the shoulder of cornerback Johnathan Joseph for a 41-yard touchdown, stunning the noisy crowd.

Houston’s offensive line also looked shaky. The Packers sacked Matt Schaub on each of Houston’s first two series, forcing quick punts. Schaub was only sacked three times in the first five games.

Houston defensive end J.J. Watt sacked Rodgers, and fired up the fans by mimicking Rodgers’ “championship belt” pose after the play. Watt, who finished with two sacks, came into the game with 7 1-2 sacks, just behind Green Bay’s Clay Matthews , who led the league with eight and didn’t have won against the Texans.

That didn’t faze Rodgers, who eluded a rush from Connor Barwin and completed a 24-yard pass to Randall Cobb , who had seven catches for 102 yards. Jones made a diving, fingertip catch in the end zone just before the end of the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.

“As a quarterback, it’s interesting to see the kind of dances that go on around you,” Rodgers said, “and it’s not often that you get a chance to dance back to them.”

Foster finished a 5-minute drive with a short touchdown run, but the Packers had a quick answer. Rodgers found Nelson with a 21-yard touchdown to cap a smooth drive that took less than 4 minutes.

Rodgers completed 15 of 21 passes for 187 yards and was only sacked once in the first half. He connected with six receivers before halftime, and didn’t miss Greg Jennings , who sat out again with a groin injury.

“He put on a show tonight,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said of Rodgers.

Not that they needed it, but the Texans helped Rodgers with untimely penalties.

A holding call wiped out an 11-yard touchdown run by Rodgers. But Barwin stepped on another player’s back trying to block Mason Crosby ‘s field-goal attempt, an unsportsmanlike conduct call resulting in a first down.

Safety Danieal Manning was called for a personal foul after a whistle on a third-down play, and Rodgers threw another TD pass for a 28-10 lead.

“That’s discipline,” Kubiak said, “and discipline starts with me.”

Rookie receiver Keshawn Martin made two first-down catches late in the third quarter and Foster scored again. Cobb returned the ensuing kickoff to the Packers’ 43, and Rodgers went back to work. On third down, he scrambled to his right and threw to Crabtree, who was wide open and waltzed into the end zone.

Sam Shields intercepted Schaub and fans started filing for the exits, with more than 14 minutes remaining.

NOTES: Packers LB D.J. Smith and RB Brandon Saine left the game with “significant” knee injuries, according to the team. … Rodgers surpassed his previous career high (5), set in the second-to-last game of last season, against Chicago. … The Packers improved to 19-5 in Sunday night games. … Texans WR Andre Johnson caught eight passes for 75 yards, going over 10,000 yards receiving in his career. … The Texans made a field goal for the 16th consecutive game, a franchise record. … The announced attendance was 71,702, a record for a regular-season game at Reliant Stadium.