Panthers stun Brady, Bucs 21-3 as Tampa Bay drops below .500

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell below .500 with a stunning 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers, who won their second game of the season Sunday despite playing with a third-string quarterback and interim head coach. Brady was 32-of-49 passing for 290 yards for the Bucs (3-4). One of those incompletions came when a wide-open Mike Evans dropped what would have been a 64-yard touchdown on the third play of the game. Brady hasn’t had a losing record this far into a season since the 2002 New England Patriots dropped four straight games to reach 3-4. P.J. Walker threw for 177 yards and two touchdowns for Carolina (2-5) in place of injured Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. The Panthers won for the first time under interim coach Steve Wilks, who replaced Matt Rhule when he was fired Oct. 10. Tampa Bay’s defense allowed the Panthers to rush for 173 yards. D’Onta Foreman ran for 118 yards, adn Chuba Hubbard added 63 yards and a touchdown. Carolina came in as a 13 1/2-point underdog and having lost 12 of 13 games. It’s now one game behind the Bucs and Atlanta Falcons for first place in the NFC South. COMMANDERS 23, PACKERS 21 LANDOVER, Md. (AP) – Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense sputtered and Washington handed the Packers their third straight loss. Nursing a sore thumb and out of sync with receivers, Rodgers was 23 of 35 for 194 yards and the Packers went 0 of 6 on third down. Green Bay (3-4) had just 232 total yards of offense to Washington’s 364 and lost Allen Lazard to a shoulder injury, making him the team’s third wide receiver to go down during the first losing streak under coach Matt LaFleur. Rodgers finished the game face down on the turf after a failed final play that ended with him throwing a lateral out of bounds. Washington’s front four also played a role in frazzling Rodgers and making him look more like a rookie than a 38-year-old four-time MVP. Only a series of penalties on the Commanders (3-4) made the game close in the final minutes. Taylor Heinicke, making his first start of the season in place of injured Carson Wentz, threw for two touchdowns – including a perfect 37-yard pass to Terry McLaurin – and was 20 of 33 for 200 yards. Heinicke got off to a rough start, going 1 for 7 – including an interception that De’Vondre Campbell returned 63 yards for a touchdown. CHIEFS 44, 49ERS 23 SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) – Patrick Mahomes threw for 423 yards and three touchdowns as Kansas City rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat San Francisco. Mahomes got off to a rough start in this Super Bowl rematch with his early interception putting Kansas City (5-2) in a 10-0 hole. But he led the Chiefs to touchdowns on six of the next seven drives. Mecole Hardman scored on two TD runs and an 8-yard catch, Justin Watson caught a 4-yard TD, and JuJu Smith-Schuster finished it off with a 45 yard catch-and-run. Clyde Edwards-Helaire also scored on a 16-yard run. Kansas City improved to 13-9 with Mahomes when falling behind by at least 10 points, including the Super Bowl win over the 49ers (3-4) following the 2019 season. The Niners (3-4) dropped back-to-back games despite getting a boost from the addition this week of running back Christian McCaffrey, who had 62 yards on 10 scrimmage touches in his San Francisco debut. But San Francisco settled for three field goals and came up empty on another chance when Jimmy Garoppolo threw an interception at the goal line before Kansas City ran away with it in the second half. GIANTS 23, JAGUARS 17 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Two New York defenders tackled Christian Kirk inside the 1-yard line as time expired to preserve the win over Jacksonville.