1st Down: Great Finishes

1st Down is a recap of all the NFL action from every Sunday.

12 Denver 7 Cincinnati: This game stunk till the very end. And in the words of the immortal Jim Ross "That's when business picked up." First the Bengals drove right down the field late in the fourth quarter. A Cedric Benson touchdown gave the Bengals the 7-6 lead. Then things got interesting. Brandon Stokley caught a deflected pass and ran for an 87-yard touchdown to give the Broncos the win. The play was unbelievable and Gus Johnson was there to make the call. Watch and listen to the greatness of this play.



19 Atlanta 7 Miami: In a meeting between last year's surprise teams, Atlanta came out with the victory. Atlanta's new tight end Tony Gonzalez caught his first touchdown with Atlanta. The Atlanta defense forced four interceptions in the game including three fumbles. So much for an rebuilding Atlanta defense.

38 Baltimore 24 Kansas City: The Ravens needed a late touchdown from Willis McGahee to finally put away Kansas City. Joe Flacco had his best game of his career throwing for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Kansas City only had a total of 188 yards in the game, but were still able to put up 24 points on the Baltimore defense.

38 Philadelphia 10 Carolina: This wasn't so much a dominating Philadelphia win, but just an complete implosion by Carolina quarterback Jack Delhomme. Delhomme committed five turnovers in the game including four interceptions and a fumble that lead Philadelphia recovered for a touchdown. The only bad thing to happen to Philly in the game was that Donovan McNabb had to leave with a fractured rib. It's doubtful if McNabb plays next week.

34 Minnesota 21 Cleveland: Brett Favre won in his debut for the Vikings. He didn't have to do much with Adrian Peterson standing behind him. Peterson ran for 180 yards and three touchdowns. Cleveland as able to score their first offensive touchdown in over seven games. Check out this run that Adrian Peterson had in the game.



24 New York Jets 7 Houston: Mark Sanchez was impressive in his debut game. Sanchez threw for 272 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Thomas Jones ran for 107 yards for two touchdowns on 20 carries. Matt Schaub was sacked twice and he threw an interception for the Texans.

45 New Orleans 27 Detroit: Drew Brees threw an opening day record six touchdowns. Brees also threw for 358 yards. Despite three interceptions by Matthew Stafford, the Detroit offense was still able to score 27 points in the game. Jeremy Shockey overcame a hangover to catch two touchdowns from Brees in the game. Detroit has now lost 18 games in a row.

14 Indianapolis 12 Jacksonville: Another game that wasn't pretty but effective. Peyton Manning threw for 301 yards and a touchdown. Reggie Wayne caught 10 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown. Maurice Jones-Drew scored a late touchdown for Jacksonville, but the Jaguars were not able to convert the two-point conversion.

34 Dallas 21 Tampa Bay: There weren't a lot of highlights from this game. The Cowboys just ran over a rebuilding Tampa Bay team. Tony Romo threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns. Three different Dallas receivers caught touchdowns in the game.

20 San Francisco 16 Arizona: It wasn't pretty, but the Niners were able to escape with the win. After Arizona took the lead in the 4th quarter, Shaun Hill lead the Niners on a 80-yard scoring drive. Hill capped off the drive with a touchdown pass to Frank Gore. Gore scored both touchdowns for the Niners in the game. The most surprising element of the game was the Niners defense. The defense forced two Warner interceptions, a fumble, and were able to sack Warner three times.

23 New York Giants 17 Washington: The most offense that Washington showed was a Hunter Smith fake field goal for a 8-yard touchdown. Other than that, nothing. Eli Manning threw one touchdown and the Giants scored the rest of their points on field goals. New York was never able to get their running game going.

28 Seattle 0 St. Louis: Good thing the Seahawks were playing the Rams or they might not have recovered from two early Matt Hasselback interceptions. After Hasselback settled down, he threw three touchdowns including two to tight end John Carlson. The Rams committed 10 penalties in the game and allowed Marc Bulger to be sacked three times.

21 Green Bay 15 Chicago: Talk about karma. Denver wins on a remarkable game-ending play and Jay Cutler throws four interceptions as Chicago loses. Chicago did have the lead in the game until Aaron Rodgers hit Greg Jennings for a 50-yard touchdown. Other than the Jennings touchdown and a Devin Hester touchdown, this was a boring defensive game.

Create a Caption: What is Cutler thinking?