Day packs quite a kick

You knew something was in the air Sunday when the Oakland Raiders won for the first time in a dozen games ... and both quarterbacks from Super Bowl XL were knocked out of their games ... and Houston beat Jacksonville by 20 points ... and Green Bay won in South Florida for the first time since Super Bowl II.

Yes, there they were, wafting through the air.

Field goals.

Long field goals.

Late field goals.

Do-over field goals.

Three field goals that were virtually the football equivalent of the walkoff home run.

The longest was Matt Bryant’s 62-yarder -- one yard shy of the league record -- that gave Tampa Bay a 23-21 upset victory over Philadelphia.

The latest was Morten Andersen’s 32-yarder -- coming seven minutes into overtime -- that gave Atlanta a crazy 41-38 triumph over Pittsburgh.

The two-to-make-one exercise was completed by Lawrence Tynes, who converted once from 48 yards, had it erased by a penalty and converted again from 53 yards, moving Kansas City past San Diego, 30-27.

Bryant and Andersen split the uprights on the last plays of their respective games.

Tynes did it with room to spare -- six seconds were left on the clock.

With three swings of the leg, three Super Bowl contenders were dealt defeats, with the Steelers and the Chargers hanging their heads and the Eagles shaking theirs in disbelief.

A game-deciding 62-yard field goal?

From a kicker who hadn’t kicked one longer than 28 yards this season?

Who had previously tried only two field goals from 50 yards or more during a five-year career spent with four teams?

Who now owns the third-longest field goal in NFL history, one yard behind the co-holders of the record, Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam?

Bryant cleared the crossbar with room to spare, despite nothing in his scouting report suggesting he was up to the task.

Bryant got the chance only because it was desperation time for the Buccaneers. Philadelphia had taken the lead, 21-20, on a 52-yard touchdown reception by Brian Westbrook with 33 seconds left.

When he converted, Bryant salvaged victory for a Tampa Bay team that had squandered a 17-0 lead, hadn’t scored an offensive touchdown and had been out-gained at home, 506 yards to 196.

Stealing a cruel joke from the Chicago Bears, who swindled Arizona out of a Monday victory in a move that apparently low-bridged the Cardinals’ season, the Buccaneers used two interception returns from Ronde Barber and three field goals from Bryant to overcome a 302-yard, three-touchdown passing effort from Donovan McNabb.

(How badly did that nationally televised debacle send the Cardinals reeling? This badly: For an encore, Arizona lost, 22-9, to Oakland as the Raiders intercepted two Matt Leinart passes and became the last team this season to record a victory. Tampa Bay’s 1976 record of completing an entirely winless season remains intact, 30 years and counting.)

For the second week in a row, Philadelphia lost to a troubled underdog on a last-second field goal. In Week 6, it was John Carney’s 31-yarder for New Orleans. In Week 7, Bryant was asked to double that distance -- 62 yards, or 12 more than Bryant’s previous career best -- and he replied, “Sure, why not?”

Bryant stands today as one of five NFL kickers to have made field goals of 60 yards or longer. Next on the list after Bryant, tied at 60 yards, are Steve Cox and Andersen, who can’t approach that distance at age 46, but continues to produce winners -- the latest enabling Atlanta to hand Pittsburgh its fourth loss in six games.

This came after the league’s new king of pain, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, had been sidelined again, knocked briefly unconscious early in the third quarter on a helmet-to-helmet hit by Chauncey Davis.

A few hours later, Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck sprained a knee in a 31-13 home defeat to Minnesota.

Charlie Batch and Seneca Wallace wrapped up at quarterback for the defending Super Bowl contestants, who are a combined 6-6 in 2006.

At Kansas City, it wasn’t surprising to hear that LT decided a game between the Chargers and the Chiefs. But this time, LaDainian Tomlinson watched helplessly from the sidelines as Lawrence Tynes connected from 48 yards, was pushed back five yards because of a procedure penalty and rebooted successfully from 53 yards.

In other notable developments:

* The Texans defeated the Jaguars, 27-7, to record the first two-game home winning streak in their history as rookie Wali Lundy, with 93 yards rushing, became the first Houston running back to break the 60-yard barrier this season.

* The Packers downed the Miami Dolphins, 34-24, winning in South Florida for the first time since 1968, when Vince Lombardi closed out his Green Bay coaching career with a Super Bowl triumph over Oakland. Lombardi wouldn’t recognize the 2006 Packers -- Green Bay began the game ranked last in the league in pass defense, or at least did until the Packers ran into Joey Harrington again.

Shades of Harrington, the Detroit years: Green Bay intercepted three of the old Lion’s passes to win for the second time in six games.

* Denver came within 12 minutes of recording its first road shutout in 14 years, eventually defeating Cleveland, 17-7. Before Charlie Frye’s short scoring pass in the fourth quarter, the Broncos defense had yielded only one touchdown this season.

But the Browns finally scored on a six-yard pass to Joe Jurevicius that was set up by an interception of a Jake Plummer pass, enabling Broncos fans to mark the occasion the way they prefer.

Broncos win! It’s Jake’s fault!

mike.penner@latimes.com