Texans can't slow Rivers as he rallies Chargers with cast of backups

HOUSTON -- Philip Rivers picked apart the Houston Texans' porous pass defense, even without some of his favorite receivers.

The NFL's leading passer threw four touchdowns on Sunday, and the San Diego Chargers earned their first road win of the season in beating the Houston Texans 29-23.

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The Chargers (4-5) were missing tight end Antonio Gates (torn plantar fascia) and wide receiver Malcom Floyd (hamstring) to injuries. They're also awaiting the return of Vincent Jackson, who signed his contract tender on Oct. 29 and has one game left on a team-imposed suspension.

Rivers didn't miss any of them on Sunday, using eight different receivers in completing 17 of 23 passes for 295 yards. Rookie Seyi Ajirotutu and backup tight end Randy McMichael caught two touchdowns apiece.

"I usually don't get to throw Tutu a ton of balls, or Randy for that matter, because practice reps are so valuable," he said. "If something is up for tight ends, Gates usually takes it. The last week or two, I was able to throw those guys a lot more balls than I have in the past and it certainly paid off."

The Chargers (4-5) head into their bye week on their first two-game winning streak of the season.

Ajirotutu just moved up to the active roster on Oct. 23, when linebacker Kion Wilson went on injured reserve. The undrafted rookie out of Fresno State clutched the game ball in the locker room after catching four passes for 111 yards.

"I'm going to hold onto this for a while," he said. "I'll probably let it go after the bye week. I'm just glad I was able to get it. There was a lot of people that helped contribute to this win and I'm just glad I was able to get one."

Arian Foster rushed 27 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns for Houston (4-4), which has lost three of its past four home games.

"You've got to protect your home turf," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. "Obviously, we haven't done that."

This time, Houston failed on two fourth down plays in the second half to blow a 23-14 lead.

McMichael's second TD catch cut the lead to 23-21 with 5:55 left in the third quarter, and the Chargers stuffed Foster on fourth-and-1 from the 17 early in the final quarter.

Rookie Kareem Jackson has taken much of the blame for the Texans' 32nd-ranked pass defense, but he intercepted Rivers' pass to Ajirotutu near midfield with about 12 minutes left.

Rivers atoned on the next possession, throwing over Jackson for a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ajirotutu with 5:23 left. Mike Tolbert jumped over the pile for a 2-point conversion to give San Diego a 29-23 lead.

Rivers said last week that the Texans' secondary was vulnerable to deep passes. When the Chargers tried big plays on Sunday, Rivers said they clicked as well as they did in practice.

"A couple of things came up just how we drew them up," he said.

Rivers has 2,944 yards passing this season.

"He can make any throw," San Diego coach Norv Turner said. "He understands what we're doing. He makes a lot of guys look like real good players, and we got some young guys that are going to be good players."

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The Texans had a chance for the go-ahead score in the final minutes, but the usually sure-handed Andre Johnson made a costly mistake.

On second down, Johnson couldn't handle Matt Schaub's pass, and the ball ricocheted off his knee and into the hands of safety Paul Oliver. Officials upheld the interception after a replay review, and Rivers kneeled down to run out the clock.

"No matter what happened during the game before that play, we still had a chance to win that game," Johnson said. "I thought I had it. My knee came up, the ball hit off my knee, and the guy picked it off."

The Chargers improved to 4-0 against the Texans after starting the game with the kind of special teams blunders that have hurt them all season.

Oliver caught the opening kickoff and inexplicably stepped out of bounds at the San Diego 4. Texans linebacker Stanford Keglar then deflected Mike Scifres' punt, and Houston recovered at the Chargers 8.

It was the fifth San Diego punt blocked or deflected this season, and Foster scored on the next snap.

Ajirotutu then sprinted past Jackson on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Rivers, the eighth reception covering more than 40 yards this season against Houston's secondary.

Notes: Rivers' other four-touchdown game came in a 41-24 win over Tampa Bay in December 2008. ... The Texans' defense faced a top-five offense for the fifth time this season. ... McMichael had the first two-touchdown game of his career. ... Foster scored multiple touchdowns for the fourth time this season.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

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Sanchez rallies Jets in fourth quarter and finishes Lions in overtime

DETROIT -- Mark Sanchez threw a lot of passes high, low and wide.

When it mattered most, he found his target.

Sanchez connected with Santonio Holmes for 52 yards to set up Nick Folk's 30-yard field goal 2:18 into overtime, lifting the New York Jets to a 23-20 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

"He's at his best when he's not thinking and he's just a California boy playing football," Jets receiver Braylon Edwards said.

Sanchez scored on a quarterback sneak with 2:46 left in regulation and led a nine-play drive that set up Folk's 36-yard kick to send the game into OT.

He successfully lobbied Jets coach Rex Ryan to run the two-minute offense in overtime.

"When I started running it, we got them on their heels," Sanchez said. "It was obvious that we took over the game at the end."

Knocking Matthew Stafford out of the game certainly helped the Jets take control.

Stafford threw two TD passes and ran for a score to give Detroit a 10-point lead before re-injuring his right shoulder and leaving the game with 5:19 left. Stafford separated his shoulder in the opener and was out until last week.

"You don't want to hurt a guy, but that changed the game," said linebacker Bryan Thomas, who tackled Stafford from behind and sent him crashing on his right shoulder. "I was just trying to make a play."

Lions coach Jim Schwartz gave Sanchez extra time to run more plays on the game-tying drive when he called a pass on third down and Drew Stanton threw an incompletion, giving the Jets the ball with 1:40 left.

"I didn't make myself clear enough that we shouldn't worry about taking the lost yardage play right there because the clock obviously was important," Schwartz said.

The Jets were stunned at Schwartz's decision not to run the ball and take time off the clock when they were out of timeouts.

"They gave us about 40 more seconds to work with," New York offensive tackle Damien Woody said. "That was huge."

The Jets (6-2) took advantage against the Lions (2-6) and silenced a previously boisterous crowd at Ford Field.

"Obviously we feel fortunate we got the win, but we don't care -- we'll take it," Ryan said. "That's what good teams do, find a way to win."

In a matchup of first-round quarterbacks from last year's draft, Sanchez came out on top and Stafford couldn't stay on the field. Stafford was the No. 1 pick overall and Sanchez was drafted fifth.

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Sanchez was 22 of 39 for a career-high 323 yards with one TD -- a 74-yard, go-ahead pass to Edwards with a minute left in the first half -- and one interception.

Stafford was 20 of 36 for 240 yards with two TDs, no interceptions, and a rushing score. Calvin Johnson was held to 1 reception for 13 yards, getting shut down by All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis.

"He brought the best out of me," Revis said.

The Lions were at their best and looked like they were going to win a third game this season -- to surpass the victories they had the past two years combined -- when Stafford lobbed a 2-yard TD to Nate Burleson with 11:51 left.

But they couldn't overcome Stafford's injury or Schwartz's questionable call and linebacker Julian Peterson's personal foul on the game-tying drive.

"This is the worst loss ever, I think, in my 10 years," said Detroit center Dominic Raiola, whose record with the franchise is 35-117 since 2001.

New York, which was shut out at home last week by Green Bay, didn't score in the first or third quarters at Detroit.

Sanchez and the Jets, though, were explosive enough to score 10 points in the last 2:46 and on the opening drive of OT.

Detroit got off to a good start and led for much of the game, but couldn't make enough winning plays on both sides of the ball to snap New York's seven-game winning streak on the road.

Stafford connected with Brandon Pettigrew for a 10-yard TD on the first drive against a team that had given up three points in the first quarter of its first seven games.

A missed extra point proved to be costly for Detroit.

Rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, filling in for injured kicker Jason Hanson, hit the right upright on an extra point in the third quarter when the Lions led 13-10.

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Hanson, whose right knee was evaluated on the sideline, was healthy enough to return to kick an extra point that put Detroit ahead 20-10 in the fourth.

The Jets would've been more aggressive if they needed a TD on the final drive of regulation, but they only needed three points to force the game into overtime against Stanton, who was active because backup QB Shaun Hill is injured.

Notes: New York's LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene combined for 101 yards rushing and Holmes had 114 yards receiving. ... Burleson had seven catches for 113 yards and a TD. ... The Jets gave DE Vernon Gholston his first start of the year and he didn't make a tackle.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.

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