They’re Gifts of All Kinds

It seemed no lead was safe in the NFL on Sunday, with the exception of the San Francisco-Washington game, because the 49ers are capable of giving up 52 points against anyone, even the Redskins and their stuck-in-the-’80s, where-did-Clinton-Portis-go offense.

Thanks to the timely visit of the 49ers, Washington won, 52-17, and Portis scored his first three touchdowns of the season and Mark Brunell made like Sonny Jurgensen and the Redskins scored their most points in a single game since 1991, prompting James Brown to exclaim on Fox, “What in the world happened there?!? An offensive explosion!” What in the world happened there?

Simple. The 49ers came to town.

Elsewhere around the league, giveaways, many of them quite late, formed the theme of the day.

At Seattle: With nothing but a field goal to show for their first 59 minutes of game action, the Seahawks trailed the Dallas Cowboys, 10-3, with less than 60 seconds to play. In the last 40 seconds, the Seahawks a) tied the score on a one-yard pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Ryan Hannam; b) intercepted a Drew Bledsoe pass, defensive back Jordan Babineaux returning it 25 yards to the Dallas 32-yard line; and c) won, 13-10, on a 50-yard field goal by Josh Brown as time expired.

At Minnesota: Not to be outdone, Paul Edinger kicked the longest field goal of his career -- 56 yards -- on the game’s last play, giving the Vikings a preposterous, 23-20 victory over Green Bay, which squandered a 17-0 lead in the final 20 minutes.

At the Meadowlands: Down, 23-10, early in the fourth quarter, the New York Giants scored two touchdowns in the last 10 minutes, including the game-winner with five seconds left -- Amani Toomer, on a two-yard pass from Eli Manning -- to pull out a 24-23 victory over the Denver Broncos.

At St. Louis: Down, 14-0, after one quarter and down to Jamie Martin as their starting quarterback, the Rams rallied to defeat the New Orleans Saints, 28-17, on 21 fourth-quarter points and the assistance of a controversial decision by the officials.

At Philadelphia: First the Eagles blew a 10-0 lead, then the San Diego Chargers blew a 17-10 lead. Ultimately, the Eagles won, 20-17, after Quintin Mikell blocked Nate Kaeding’s potential clinching field-goal try and Matt Ware returned it 65 yards for a touchdown with 2:25 remaining.

Those are the facts. Now for some details.

Bledsoe never should have thrown that fateful pass, considering the Cowboys were playing on the road and should have been playing for overtime, especially when you consider Dallas had the ball only at midfield with 14 seconds left, evidently trying to move Jose Cortez close enough for another Bill-Parcells-can’t-bear-to-watch field goal attempt.

Nothing good was likely to come of that sideline throw by Bledsoe. Even if completed and advanced into, ahem, “field-goal range” for the erratic Cortez. Dallas would have had better odds of winning a coin flip, ideally the one conducted right before overtime.

(For the record: Cortez earlier had shanked a 29-yard attempt, which got the Cowboys into this predicament in the first place.)

How do the Packers blow a 17-0 lead to a Viking team cast adrift by the Lake Minnetonka scandal and a 1-4 start that looked ready to capsize the NFL coaching career of Mike Tice at any moment?

Or, as a Sports Illustrated cover headline put it this week: “How Bad Are the Minnesota Vikings?” Not nearly as bad as the Packers were in the second half at the Metrodome. After scoring 17 unanswered points in the first half, Green Bay surrendered 20 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters before Ryan Longwell, who earlier missed from 42 and 53 yards, converted a 39-yard field goal to tie with 24 seconds on the clock.

On to overtime, then, and one more drive by Brett Favre and ... not so fast. Twenty-four seconds gave Minnesota time enough for two Daunte Culpepper completions and a 56-yard yard field goal try by Edinger. It was a long shot, but Edinger took it -- and wound up clearing the crossbar easily. The kick was the second-longest game-winner in league history, behind only Tom Dempsey’s 63-yarder for New Orleans in 1970.

Denver took a five-game winning streak into Giants Stadium, the same place the Broncos carried a 13-0 record in 1998. Both times, those streaks were foiled by touchdown passes to Toomer, this one enabling the Giants to keep pace atop the NFC East with Washington and Philadelphia, also 4-2.

The Saints, playing their seventh of 16 road games this season, can’t catch a break anywhere, even after tight end Ernie Conwell appeared to have caught a key pass as New Orleans drove for the potential go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Conwell caught the ball as he fell on his back, then landed on his back -- supposedly enough to end the play there -- and then had Ram defender Mike Furrey wrestle the ball from his grasp. While confused Saints wondered what Furrey was doing with the ball on a play they thought had been blown dead, Furrey ran down the sideline 67 yards, crossing the goal line to turn a 21-17 St. Louis lead to 28-17.

Replays indicated that Conwell was down by contact, which would have nullified Furrey’s run and score. But the Saints couldn’t challenge the call because they were out of timeouts. And league officials couldn’t intervene because the play began with 2:10 left in the fourth quarter -- 10 seconds too early for the league to do anything about it.

The Eagles mounted a defensive effort against San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson that produced a final stat line that, at first glance, appears to be the Typographical Error of the Season.

But, no, this is how Tomlinson’s long afternoon went into the books: 17 carries, seven yards, 0.41 yards per attempt.

Suffice it to say, Tomlinson did not score and did not break his tie with Lenny Moore for most consecutive games with a touchdown. The record remains at 18.

With the victory by the Eagles, the NFC ran its Week 7 record against the AFC to 5-0. That would appear to be the next best candidate for Typographical Error of the Season. But, again, sometimes the truth in this league is stranger than a keyboard miscue or two.

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On a roll

Active streaks of most consecutive touchdown passes against one opponent without an interception in regular- season games:

*--* Player Opponent G TD Daunte Culpepper Green Bay 5 14 Drew Bledsoe San Diego 4 11 Drew Bledsoe Arizona 4 10 Drew Brees Oakland 4 8

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