Favre passes milestone, Cowboys overpower Giants

NEW YORK: Brett Favre became the second NFL quarterback to throw for 60,000 yards when he passed for 351 yards and three touchdowns in the Green Bay Packers' 34-0 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

The 38-year-old Favre has 60,257 yards' passing in his 17-year career, behind only the retired Dan Marino who threw for 61,361 on the all-time list.

Favre connected on 33 of 46 passes to lead the Packers to an 8-1 record.

Ruvell Martin caught scoring tosses of eight and 17 yards after Donald Lee hauled in a one-yard TD pass from Favre.

Ryan Grant had a 30-yard run and Mason Crosby kicked field goals of 39 and 24 yards for Green Bay's other scores.

Vikings rookie Adrian Peterson, who set an NFL single-game rushing record of 296 yards last week, was injured in the third quarter and did not return.

Cowboys in control

In East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Dallas Cowboys took command of the NFC East division with a crushing 31-20 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Quarterback Tony Romo tossed four touchdown passes for the visitors who improved to 8-1.

The Giants dropped to 6-3 as the Cowboys ended their six-game winning streak and completed a sweep of New York following their 45-35 win in the season opener in Dallas.

Romo hit wide receiver Terrell Owens on second-half scoring strikes of 25 and 50 yards to blow open a game that was tied 17-17 at the intermission.

The victory enabled the Cowboys to keep pace with the NFC North leading Green Bay Packers (8-1) for the best record in the National Football Conference.

"Division games are the most important games and certainly on the road," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips told reporters.

"Sweeping the Giants makes us three ahead of them," he said, referring to any future tiebreakers with New York.

Phillips said he was proud of the way his offense rose to the challenge against the Giants, who had led the NFL in sacks.

"We don't have a good offense, we have a great offense," Phillips said. "We're able to score a lot of points."

Giants coach Tom Coughlin did not try to make excuses.

"We didn't play well enough to win," he said. "The second half wasn't good enough. We were our own worst enemy. We have no excuses."

Romo, the NFC's highest-rated quarterback, completed 20-of-28 passes for 241 yards. He also connected with Patrick Crayton for a 20-yard touchdown and hit tight end Tony Curtis for a 15-yard score.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning was 23-of-34, throwing the ball for 236 yards, but was intercepted twice and failed to rally New York in the second half.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for two touchdowns and ran for another to rally the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-2) from a 15-point deficit to a 31-28 home victory over the Cleveland Browns. The victory was the ninth straight by the Steelers over the Browns (5-4), who had a 100-yard kickoff return by Joshua Cribbs.

Chargers stun Colts

The San Diego Chargers grabbed a 23-point lead but had to stave off a late rally to beat the Indianapolis Colts 23-21 on Sunday.

The loss was the second in a row for the Colts (7-2), who were beaten by the undefeated New England Patriots last week.

San Diego (5-4) led 23-0 in the second quarter before Peyton Manning, who was intercepted six times, rallied the Colts to within two points in the fourth quarter.

But Adam Vinatieri missed a 29-yard field goal with about a minute to play that could have won the game for the Colts.

The St. Louis Rams won their first game of the season, beating the New Orleans Saints 37-29 on the road. Marc Bulger passed for 302 yards and Torry Holt caught eight passes for 124 yards as the Rams ended an eight-game skid. Drew Brees had two touchdown passes for New Orleans (4-5).

Fred Taylor scored a touchdown and rushed for 45 yards to become the 21st NFL player to top 10,000 yards rushing in the Jacksonville Jaguars' 28-13 road victory over the Tennessee Titans. Maurice Jones-Drew added 101 yards rushing and a touchdown for the Jaguars (6-3). The loss ended a three-game winning streak by the Titans (6-3).

Agencies

(China Daily 11/13/2007 page23)