Playing catch with his
receivers while almost unchallenged by the St. Louis defense, Aaron Rodgers threw
for 310 yards and three touchdowns as Green Bay romped 24-3. The Packers
coasted, with all the scoring coming in the opening half.
The defending Super Bowl
winners are the only 6-0 team after Detroit lost to San Francisco 25-19 in a
game marred by a bumping incident between the coaches.
After the 49ers improved to
5-1 and dropped the Lions to the same record, San Francisco’s first-year coach,
Jim Harbaugh, charged across the field, lifting his shirt to expose his belly
to attempt a chest bump. He extended his right hand to Lions coach Jim Schwartz
for a shake and slapped him on the back with his left hand.
Schwartz didn’t like what was
done or said — claiming he heard an expletive — and went charging after
Harbaugh. Players from both teams got in the middle of the tiff, and Harbaugh
admitted, “That’s totally on me. I shook his hand too hard.”
There were no such issues at
Lambeau Field, where Rodgers threw a career-long 93-yard scoring pass to Jordy
Nelson among his three TD passes.
James Jones and Donald Driver
also caught touchdowns from Rodgers, but the Packers weren’t particularly
satisfied with their performance against the Rams (0-5).
“It’s a feeling of minor
disappointment, I think, in that locker room,” Rodgers said. “We just, in the
second half, offensively just struggled. The second quarter was great, we put
up a lot of points. I think it’s encouraging at the same time. It’s tough to
win in this league, we’re 6-0, and have a lot of room for improvement.”
Let that serve as a warning
to the rest of the league.
Elsewhere, it was Oakland 24,
Cleveland 17; Philadelphia 20, Washington 13; New England 20, Dallas 16; Tampa
Bay 26, New Orleans 20; Baltimore 29, Houston 14; the New York Giants 27,
Buffalo 24; Pittsburgh 17, Jacksonville 13; Atlanta 31, Carolina 17; Cincinnati
27, Indianapolis 17; and Chicago 39, Minnesota 10.
On Monday night, Miami (0-4)
is at the New York Jets (2-3).
Off this week were Arizona,
Denver, Kansas City, San Diego, Seattle and Tennessee.
At Detroit, Harbaugh, a first-year NFL coach who
played at Michigan, and Schwartz had to be separated more than once after
Schwartz came running and lunging toward Harbaugh as both teams were going to
the tunnel.
“I went to congratulate coach
Harbaugh and got shoved out of the way,” Schwartz said. “I didn’t expect an
obscenity at that point. Obviously, when you win a game like that, you are
excited, but there is a protocol that goes with this league.”
The league said it would
review the incident.
Alex Smith’s fourth-down,
6-yard pass to Delanie Walker gave San Francisco the go-ahead touchdown with
1:51 left, then David Akers kicked a 37-yard field goal. He also had a
55-yarder to end the first half and the surging 49ers had five sacks of Matthew
Stafford .
At Oakland, California, as the Raiders (4-2) honored
their late owner, Al Davis, Jacoby Ford returned a kickoff 101 yards and Kevin
Boss caught a 35-yard touchdown pass on a fake field goal against Cleveland
(2-3).
It was an emotional day with many old-time Raiders coming
back to honor Davis, the man who had been the face of the franchise for nearly
a half-century before dying Oct. 8 of an undisclosed illness at age 82. During
a halftime ceremony, dozens of former players stood in a circle around the
Raiders emblem at midfield. Super Bowl-winning coach John Madden lit a caldron
on the plaza level in the corner of the stadium.
At Landover, Maryland, Philadelphia snapped a
four-game losing streak as the defense finally came up with some big plays,
mainly Kurt Coleman’s three interceptions of Rex Grossman . Michael Vick threw
for 237 yards and a touchdown.
The Eagles (2-4) beat the
Redskins (3-2) for the 10th time in 12 tries at Washington as LeSean McCoy rushed
for 126 yards and a score.
Grossman was benched after throwing his fourth
interception late in the third quarter, and John Beck made his first appearance
since 2007.
