Peyton Manning was wooed by the Chiefs early in the offseason, after the four-time MVP had been cut loose by Indianapolis and before he signed a five-year deal with Denver.

On Sunday, he showed exactly why Kansas City was after him.

Manning threw for 285 yards and two touchdowns, and led the Broncos down the field in the final minutes when the Chiefs were frantically trying to get a stop, setting up a field goal that sealed a 17-9 victory and their sixth consecutive win.

It allowed Manning to break a tie with his boss and Broncos vice president John Elway with his 149th win as a starting quarterback, trailing only Brett Favre (186) for most in NFL history.

”Peyton Manning is a Hall of Famer,” Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said. ”We played pretty good as a defense most of the game, but he made a few plays, one or two more plays than we’d like him to make, and he came up with a victory.”

Naturally, Manning was quick to pass the praise to someone else.

In this case, it was Knowshon Moreno, who stepped into the starting lineup after Willis McGahee landed on injured reserve this week and ran for 85 yards. Manning also handed out kudos to Jacob Tamme and Demaryius Thomas, who were on the receiving end of his touchdown throws.

”I’ve got to tip my hat to Knowshon Moreno,” Manning said. ”He stepped up today and did a heck of a job. Really an impressive effort by him.”

Not so much by the Chiefs offense.

Jamaal Charles ran for 107 yards, but the Chiefs (1-10) were done in by penalties, missed opportunities and a conservative approach that has not yielded a touchdown since the first quarter against Pittsburgh on Nov. 12, a span of more than 11 quarters and 173 minutes.

They could only manage field goals by Ryan Succop for the second straight game.

”It’s really about stopping the run,” Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. ”If you can limit that run game, you put the weight on their passing game, which hasn’t been that great this year.”

Quinn was 13 of 25 for 126 yards and an interception.

”Hats off to our defense,” Broncos coach John Fox said. ”We struggled a bit against the run, but they’re a very good run team. … Something we work very hard on is the red area, and holding them to three field goals was a key in the game.”

Kansas City actually established an early lead for the third straight game on Succop’s first-quarter field goal, and seemed to be outplaying Denver (8-3) the entire first half.

They had a chance to go ahead 10-0 when they faced fourth-and-2 at the Denver 4, but Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel elected to kick another field goal against a team that had scored at least 30 points in five straight games, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd.

”I thought points on the board were important,” Crennel said by way of explanation.

Problem was that touchdowns trump field goals.

On the Broncos’ final drive of the half, Manning completed five straight passes before finding Tamme on third-and-goal from the Kansas City 7 with 18 seconds left. The touchdown catch, on which the tight end dragged safety Eric Berry into the end zone, gave the Broncos a 7-6 lead and wiped out all the hard work that Kansas City had put in over the first 25 minutes.

Denver’s Matt Prater missed his second field goal try of the game early in the third quarter, and Succop’s 49-yarder gave Kansas City its first second-half lead of the season.

But once again, a failure to get into the end zone proved fatal.

Manning, who surpassed 3,000 yards passing earlier in the day, rode the legs of Moreno into Chiefs territory, and that’s when he lobbed a pass over nickelback Jalil Brown and into the hands of Thomas for the go-ahead, 30-yard touchdown reception late in the third quarter.

”That was a great catch down the sideline against tight coverage,” Manning said.

The Chiefs twice had chances to overcome the 14-9 deficit late in the fourth, but they failed to move the ball after taking over at their own 37. After getting it back, Crennel chose to punt on fourth-and-6 at the Broncos 47 after a series of penalties ruined the drive.

It was their last chance to retake the lead.

Denver tacked on a field goal by Prater in the closing seconds, and after Jacksonville held on to beat Tennessee, the Chiefs were left as the league’s only one-win team.

”We’re frustrated every week. Every time we get a loss, it’s frustrating,” Charles said. ”I don’t know when it’s going to stop, but hopefully we can did deep down in our souls and find a way to get out of this.”

— Associated Press —

The Bengals punt team trotted onto the field midway through the first quarter Sunday, shortly after the Chiefs had kicked a field goal to take a rare lead in a game.

All the momentum was going Kansas City’s way.

Then the snap landed in the hands of Cedric Peerman, who was lined up to protect punter Kevin Huber. The running back raced around the side of the line, the perfectly executed fake catching the Chiefs napping, and 32 yards later gave Cincinnati a first down.

New life, too. The Bengals would convert another fourth down on the same series, and Andy Dalton would hit A.J. Green with a short touchdown pass to cap it off, giving Cincinnati a lead it would never relinquish in a 28-6 victory on Sunday.

”It was a momentum-swinger,” running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis said. ”That’s the thing about the NFL – most of the games are decided by a few points. When you get a momentum-swinger like that where you punch them right in the gut, it swings the momentum going your way.”

Dalton wound up with 230 yards passing, including another TD throw to Mohamed Sanu, and also scampered for a score. Green had six catches for 91 yards, and Green-Ellis bullied his way for 101 yards and a touchdown on the ground as the Bengals (5-5) won their second straight.

Cincinnati plays its next four games against teams that began the day with losing records.

None of them are as bad as the Chiefs, though.

Jamaal Charles had 87 yards rushing for Kansas City (1-9), but that was the only highlight for a team that lost its seventh straight amid a gloomy backdrop at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs’ once-raucous home venue was only about half-full most of the game, and a good portion of those who showed up were dressed in black – a grass roots effort organized by fans who have been trying to pressure team ownership to clean out the front office.

”I focus on the game. I don’t get into the crowd,” Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said.

Perhaps he should have let his eyes wander.

What happened on the field couldn’t have put him in a good mood.

Dalton and Green shredded Crennel’s porous pass defense, Ellis pounded away at a front line that had played better of late, and a middle-of-the-road Cincinnati defense looked like an iron curtain against a Kansas City offense that has been utterly inept.

The result: The Bengals are back to .500, and eying back-to-back postseason appearances for only the second time in franchise history, while the Chiefs have dropped seven straight games in a single season for the first time since Oct. 5-Nov. 23, 2008.

”We felt like we gave a couple of games away,” said Dalton, who had four TD passes in last week’s win over the Giants. ”Now we’ve got momentum and we’ve got to keep it going. We’ve had two great wins, full-team wins, with everybody doing their part, and we’ve got to keep that going.”

The Chiefs struck first for the second straight week, turning several nice runs by Charles into a 34-yard field goal by Ryan Succop, before reality set in again.

That’s when the Bengals pulled off their faked punt, converted another fourth down and then saw Dalton cap the drive with a 5-yard fade pass to Green, who managed to stab the ball with one hand and then slap both feet into the end zone before falling out of bounds.

Peyton Hillis fumbled on the Chiefs’ ensuing possession, their league-leading 31st turnover this season, but they dodged trouble when Mike Nugent missed a 50-yard field-goal attempt.

Cincinnati made it 14-3 later in the second quarter when Dalton fooled the entire Kansas City defense on a perfectly executed naked bootleg. The 1-yard TD run came on fourth down after a video review showed that Gresham had been stopped just shy of the goal line on a 10-yard catch.

The Bengals’ most impressive drive of the game came after they forced the Chiefs to punt for the third straight time, an 11-play, 78-yard masterpiece in which they faced third down once.

Ellis capped that one off with a short touchdown plunge for a 21-3 lead.

Matt Cassel deftly led the Chiefs to a field goal in the closing seconds of the half, but Crennel elected to put backup Brady Quinn into the game at quarterback to start the third quarter.

Cassel sustained a concussion earlier this season, and then lost his job to Quinn, who was active for the first time since sustaining his own concussion Oct. 28 against Oakland.

Quinn didn’t fare much better leading the Kansas City offense, and the Bengals tacked on Sanu’s touchdown catch in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

”We did good things in all three phases,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. ”We knew it was going to be a grind. We can’t worry about things around us. We just have to take care of us.”

— Associated Press —

The Kansas City Chiefs announced on Wednesday that the club has signed tight end DeMarco Cosby to the team’s practice squad.

Cosby (6-3, 245) originally entered the NFL as an undrafted rookie free agent with the St. Louis Rams in 2011 where he spent time on the club’s practice squad roster. He signed with the Green Bay Packers on July 30, 2012 but was released before the start of the regular season.

Cosby played collegiately at the University of Central Missouri, starting 14 games as a senior, hauling in 71 passes for 970 yards (13.7 avg.) and 10 TDs, all of which set single-season tight end records for the Mules. He finished his career as Central Missouri’s all-time leader among tight ends in receptions (141), receiving yards (2,146) and receiving TDs (20). Cosby prepped at Lincoln Prep High School in Kansas City, Mo.

— Chiefs Media Relations —

The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped with a victory. The health of their franchise quarterback is another matter entirely.

The Steelers edged the woeful Kansas City Chiefs 16-13 in overtime on Monday night but lost Ben Roethlisberger for most of the second half – and perhaps a lot longer – with a right shoulder injury.

Roethlisberger left early in the third quarter after getting slammed to the turf by Kansas City linebackers Tamba Hali and Justin Houston. Coach Mike Tomlin said he was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

The Steelers (6-3) went on to their fourth consecutive victory. Shaun Suisham kicked a 23-yard field goal 51 seconds into the extra period, one play after Lawrence Timmons intercepted Kansas City’s Matt Cassel and returned it to the 5.

Jamaal Charles ran for 100 yards and a score for the Chiefs (1-8), who have lost six straight.

The Chiefs rallied in spite of themselves in the final 2 minutes. Cassel led Kansas City 52 yards – converting a 4th-and-15 in the process – to set up a 46-yard field goal by Ryan Succop as time expired.

Kansas City’s only other victory this season came in overtime, a stunning upset in New Orleans in September. Any chance at a repeat faded when Cassel’s pass on the second play of extra period landed in the hands of Timmons, who returned it 23 yards to set up Suisham’s second game-winning field goal of the season.

The victory, however, came at a high cost.

Roethlisberger is in the midst of a career year but struggled through a so-so first half and was 9 of 18 for 84 yards and a touchdown when Hali came down on top of him while taking a sack on Pittsburgh’s first possession of the second half.

Byron Leftwich, playing for the first time in two years, was rusty in relief. He completed 7 of 14 passes for 73 yards though he did produce a scoring drive early in the third quarter that gave the Steelers a 13-10 lead.

It nearly held up on a night the Chiefs had one touchdown called back due to a penalty and another overturned on replay.

Cassel completed 11 of 26 passes for 154 yards for Kansas City. But the team ranked last in the NFL in turnover margin saved its biggest mistake for overtime.

Pittsburgh came in riding a three-game winning streak that erased the sour taste of a 2-3 start, and the Steelers insisted all week they wouldn’t look past the Chiefs toward a showdown against rival Baltimore next Sunday.

Funny, Pittsburgh certainly looked distracted at the start of a raw, soggy night at Heinz Field.

The Chiefs didn’t take long to erase one bit of misery in their lifeless, luckless season, taking their first lead since New Year’s Day during a spirited first half in which they avoided the kind of gaffes – turnovers, penalties, assignment breakdowns – that have plagued them all year.

With Charles gashing Pittsburgh’s defensive line and Cassel avoiding mistakes, Kansas City raced in front 10-0. Cassel hit Tony Moeaki for 38 yards on the Chiefs’ second drive, setting up a 12-yard touchdown run by Charles to give Kansas City its first lead since a 7-3 victory over Denver in the 2011 regular-season finale.

The lead grew to 10-0 after an Isaac Redman fumble deep in Pittsburgh territory led to a 22-yard field goal by Succop.

Like any brief flirtation with success for Kansas City, it didn’t last.

The Steelers drew even before halftime. Working almost exclusively with his tight ends, Roethlisberger drove Pittsburgh to a 35-yard field goal by Suisham and tied it on Pittsburgh’s next possession, when Mike Wallace atoned for an earlier drop by making a remarkable 7-yard touchdown grab in the corner of the end zone. The ball slid through Wallace’s hands, but he secured it with his legs – and controlled it – before rolling out of bounds.

There would be no second-half carryover, however. Whatever momentum the Steelers had vanished the second Roethlisberger trudged to the sideline holding his right shoulder.

In that moment all the chatter about Kansas City’s visit and former Chiefs coach turned Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s shot at revenge vanished.

— Associated Press —

The Kansas City Chiefs announced on Monday that the club has placed defensive end Glenn Dorsey on injured reserve and elevated defensive back Neiko Thorpe from the practice squad to the 53-man roster.

Dorsey (6-1, 297) has played in 66 games (65 starts) in five NFL seasons with the Chiefs. He has recorded 222 tackles (159 solo), 4.0 sacks for -18.0 yards, 22 pressures, one forced fumble, four fumble recoveries and three passes defensed. The Gonzales, La., native originally entered the NFL as a first-round draft pick (fifth overall) of the Chiefs in the 2008 NFL Draft. Dorsey was an All-SEC defensive end at LSU and prepped at East Ascension High School in Gonzales, La.

Thorpe (6-2, 185) originally joined the Chiefs as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2012. He’s seen action on special teams in one contest vs. Baltimore on Oct. 7. He played in 51 games (40 starts) at Auburn, compiling 279 tackles (172 solo), seven interceptions returned for 189 yards (27.0 avg.), 35 passes defensed, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown. He was an Under Armour All-American at Tucker High School in Tucker, Ga.

— Chiefs Media Relations —

Norv Turner is off the hot seat, at least for 10 days.

Romeo Crennel is perched squarely on it.

Antonio Gates caught a 14-yard yard scoring pass from Philip Rivers on the game’s opening drive to snap a streak of six straight quarters without a touchdown and the San Diego Chargers went on to a 31-13 victory over the staggering Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night.

Turner had been heavily criticized by fans after the Chargers (4-4) blew double-digit, second-half leads in losses to New Orleans and Denver, and then lost 7-6 at Cleveland on Sunday.

Still, at the start of halftime, some fans in one end zone unfurled a big yellow banner that read: ”Mr. Spanos, please fire A.J. & Norv.”

Team president Dean Spanos decided in January to bring back both Turner and general manager A.J. Smith even though the Chargers missed the playoffs for the second straight year and have only one postseason win in four seasons.

Spanos probably isn’t inclined to fire the embattled Turner in midseason, although a loss to the Chiefs would have been embarrassing.

”We didn’t talk about it specifically, but we want to win for him every week,” Rivers said. ”You play for a lot of things, but we play for our coach. I think that has been evident over the years when we have struggled.”

Rivers, who looked shaky during the losing streak, did his part by completing 18 of 20 passes, or 90 percent, for 220 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. It was the sixth time in NFL history a quarterback had completed 90 percent or more of his passes, and tied Steve Young for fifth on that list.

Rivers also threw a 13-yard TD pass to Malcom Floyd early in the fourth quarter.

”It was good to play well but more importantly, it was good to win a game. We needed a win in the worst way,” Rivers said. ”Game like this, wins like this can jump start us.”

The Chiefs (1-7) committed four more turnovers and lost their fifth straight game. Running back Jamaal Charles left with a neck injury in the fourth quarter.

”Similar to what’s been happening throughout the course of this year, we shoot ourselves in the foot,” Crennel said. ”We’re in a hole and we have to fight our way out. … It wasn’t very good overall, but we’re going to keep coaching and keep fighting and play our way out of it.”

The Chiefs’ four turnovers ran their NFL-high mark to a staggering 29, which have led to 104 points.

”We fought hard, played hard, but at the end of the game it came down to the turnovers,” said quarterback Matt Cassel, whose fumble and interception both led to a Chargers TD.

The Chiefs still haven’t led in regulation this season. Their only victory came when Ryan Succop kicked the winning field goal against the Saints in overtime.

With the Chiefs trailing 17-6, Cassel fumbled as he was sacked by Jarret Johnson in the end zone and Shaun Phillips recovered for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. On the next drive, Cassel’s high pass deflected off Dexter McCluster’s hands and was intercepted by Demorrio Williams, who returned it 59 yards for a touchdown.

”I don’t know If someone stepped in front of him and tipped the ball but thank God I was there to make the play,” Williams said.

In the loss to New Orleans, Williams had an interception return for a touchdown but it was nullified after rookie Melvin Ingram was flagged for a late hit on Drew Brees.

Williams, who played for the Chiefs the last four seasons, forced a fumble in the first quarter.

The Chiefs had six turnovers in a 37-20 home loss to the Chargers on Sept. 30.

In just 2 minutes, 9 seconds, the Chargers’ defense scored as many touchdowns as the offense has in 10 quarters.

Gates’ first-quarter score was San Diego’s first touchdown since the star tight end caught an 11-yard pass in the first half against Denver on Oct. 15. That score gave San Diego a 24-0 lead, but Peyton Manning rallied the Broncos to a 35-24 win.

The Chargers got only two field goals from Nick Novak in a 7-6 loss at Cleveland on Sunday, their third straight defeat.

After San Diego scored on the opening drive, Kansas City went on a 17-play drive, converting four third downs, but Dwayne Bowe fumbled after a 10-yard reception. Williams caused the fumble and Quentin Jammer recovered.

Bowe’s fumble set up Novak’s 25-yard field goal with 9:10 left in the second quarter.

After Kansas City decided not to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the San Diego 31, Succop kicked a 49-yard field goal with 2:51 left before halftime.

The Chargers had a third-and-goal from the 1 in the closing seconds of the half when Rivers was intercepted by Eric Berry.

Succop had a 41-yard field goal in the third quarter.

— Associated Press —

Carson Palmer walked off the field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, where the Raiders had just won for the sixth straight time, and looked just like he did at the start.

Not a grass stain on him. No laundry detergent needed.

The subject of such scorn over the years, Palmer threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns while having all the time he needed in the pocket, leading Oakland to a 26-16 victory.

”Phenomenal,” Palmer said. ”I don’t think my jersey needs to be washed.”

It was the Raiders’ first road win since beating the Chiefs last December, and certainly a satisfying one. Sebastian Janikowski was perfect on four field-goal attempts, and the Raiders (3-4) nearly became the third straight team to keep the Kansas City offense out of the end zone.

The Chiefs got their lone touchdown on Dexter McCluster’s catch with 2:27 left in the game.

Darren McFadden ran for 114 yards, and Denarius Moore and Darrius Heyward-Bey had touchdown catches for Oakland, which has won two straight after losing four of its first five.

”It took us a while to get it going, but once it finally got going, we finished the game out well,” McFadden said. ”We feel like with our offense, you just have to stick with it.”

Helps that Palmer could have pitched a tent in his pocket.

”I thought he managed the game really well and had tremendous poise,” Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. ”We still have a lot of things to get cleaned up, but the good thing is that we are able to make those corrections after a win.”

Meanwhile, the Chiefs (1-6) have lost four straight overall, their only win coming in overtime at New Orleans. They also haven’t led in regulation this season, the first time since at least 1940 that a team’s gone this long without a lead, according to STATS LLC.

Matt Cassel threw for 218 yards in place of Brady Quinn, who left in the first half with what the team called a ”head injury.” Quinn had started his second straight game even though Cassel was cleared to play following his own concussion sustained three weeks ago against Baltimore.

”It’s unfortunate because I think the guys put a lot into it during the week,” Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said. ”You just have to go forward and do the best you can.”

The Chiefs committed four turnovers to run their league-leading total to 25, and their fourth-quarter touchdown was the first by the offense since Sept. 30 against San Diego. Jamaal Charles, their biggest offensive weapon, carried only five times for 4 yards.

Why did Charles have so few attempts? ”Now, that I’m not exactly sure, either,” Crennel said.

Altogether, it’s little wonder that two more banners appeared prior to the game, towed behind an airplane over Arrowhead Stadium. They were paid for by disgruntled Chiefs fans and renewed their plea from earlier this season that general manager Scott Pioli be fired.

The first play of the game pretty much summed up the confrontation between two of the league’s lousiest teams: Palmer threw into tight coverage and was intercepted by Stanford Routt.

Naturally, the Chiefs countered by going three-and-out and punting.

The Raiders finally got on the board when Palmer found Moore for a short completion that he turned into a 38-yard gain, and Janikowski connected from 36 yards for a 3-0 lead.

The field-goal struggle was on.

Janikowski hit from 38 yards early in the second quarter, and Ryan Succop matched him with a 30-yarder. Succop hit again from 42 yards late in the half to tie the game.

The Raiders took the lead into halftime when the Chiefs’ Javier Arenas fumbled a punt while attempting to make a fair catch. Jon Condo recovered it at the Kansas City 11, and Palmer hit Moore in the back of the end zone on third down to give Oakland a 13-6 lead with 49 seconds left.

The game’s circuslike nature continued in the second half.

Cassel fumbled the snap on the first play of the third quarter and the Raiders’ Tommy Kelly recovered it, but Oakland couldn’t manage anything in three plays – two of them woeful throws by Palmer. The Raiders had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Janikowski.

Succop added a 52-yarder later in the quarter to get the Chiefs within a touchdown, but Oakland answered by going 80 yards in just six plays for another score. Palmer picked on Routt the whole way, and his 36-yard touchdown pass to Heyward-Bey gave the Raiders a 23-9 lead.

How bad were things going for Kansas City? Janikowski finally missed a field goal in the fourth quarter, only for Jalil Brown to be called offside on the play.

Janikowski knocked through the redo with 8:14 left to put the game away.

”You want to wear a defense down,” McFadden said. ”I feel like we did that today, and eventually we were able to start to get them to break out.”

— Associated Press —

Ronde Barber is getting older, but no less valuable to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The 37-year-old, five-time Pro Bowl selection has always had a knack for making big plays, and his interception and 78-yard return for a touchdown Sunday keyed a 38-10 rout of the struggling Kansas City Chiefs.

”If I could bottle that, I’d sell it for a lot of money,” the oldest player on the field said of his penchant for changing games. ”I’ve always been ball aware. I see the ball out a lot because I’m always around it. I can’t tell you why. I’ll just take them as they come, though.”

The only remaining player from Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl champion of 10 years ago picked off a pass that nearly hit the ground after glancing off the intended receiver’s arm, and it smooth sailing up the right sideline, with teammate E.J. Biggers leading the way.

”I was covering the inside slant. E.J. actually made a great play,” Barber said. ”He’s gotten the assist on a couple of my interceptions here the past couple of years. Give him more credit than me. I just snatched it off the ground before it hit it. It was a pretty easy 78-yard run for me.”

Josh Freeman threw for a season-high 328 yards and three TDs for the Bucs (2-3), who intercepted Brady Quinn twice in the Kansas City quarterback’s first start in nearly three years.

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

He 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.

The victory coming off a bye week ended a three-game skid and left the Chiefs (1-5) heading into their open date with a three-game skid of their own.

”It’s a big day for our offense and for our team to get back on track,” Bucs coach Greg Schiano said. ”For Josh, especially, I thought he kept his cool throughout the game when things didn’t go well. … Sure, there are going to be throws he’s going to wish he had back and things he wished he did differently. It’s a slow process, but he’s getting better.”

Barber, making the transition to safety after 15 seasons as one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks, scored his 14th career regular season touchdown when he picked off a pass that bounced off Dexter McCluster and ran up the sideline untouched to make it 21-3 early in the third quarter.

The Chiefs thought the ball hit the ground. The play was reviewed, but the ruling that it was an interception and TD stood.

”I got hit on the play,” Quinn said. ”I thought I put the ball in a good spot, but all of a sudden I looked up and I saw him running. It was a tremendous play on his part. I couldn’t tell on the replay. From my point of view it looked like it hit the ground, but he made a great play.”

It was Barber’s eighth career interception return for a TD.

Quinn completed 22 of 38 passes for 180 yards, filling in for the injured Matt Cassel, who sat out after leaving the previous week’s 9-6 loss to Baltimore with a concussion.

The Chiefs scored their only touchdown early in the fourth quarter on Edgar Jones’ 11-yard fumble return on a play that began with Shaun Draughn blocking a punt into the end zone.

Bucs punter Michael Koenen chased down the loose ball and ran out to the 1, where he was hit by Draughn as he was trying to throw the ball forward. Jones caught the ball on the fly, but it was ruled a fumble because a pass can’t be attempted off a blocked punt.

”I was surprised once I saw him pick up the ball in the end zone. He looked like as he was running the ball, he just kind of looked at me and just threw it,” Jones said. ”I’ll take it.”

Williams finished with four receptions for 113 yards, his second consecutive 100-yard game. LeGarette Blount finished the rout with a 12-yard touchdown run.

The Bucs played without cornerback Aqib Talib, who began serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

Tampa Bay limited NFL rushing leader Jamaal Charles to 40 yards on 12 attempts.

— Associated Press —