NFL-Highlights of Sunday's National Football League games

Dec 15 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Sunday's National Football League games: - - Dolphins 24, Patriots 20 Quarterback Ryan Tannehill tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass to running back Marcus Thigpen with 1:15 left in the game to lead the Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots at Sun Life Stadium. The winning drive took nine plays and 60 yards with 2:52 taken off the clock. Miami then stopped Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on New England's final try for the win, although Danny Amendola had two hands on the ball in the end zone in the final minute before safety Michael Thomas broke up the play. Then, on fourth-and-five at the Miami 14, Thomas, in his first game after the Dolphins signed him as a free agent, intercepted Brady in the end zone. Brady passed for 364 yards, two touchdowns and the one interception. - - Colts 25, Texans 3 Andrew Luck passed for 180 yards and two touchdowns as the Indianapolis Colts strolled through a rout of the Houston Texans. The Colts (9-5) were missing nine starters but breezed past a floundering Houston team that lost its 12th straight. T.Y. Hilton had a career-high eight catches for 78 yards and Griff Whalen, a teammate of Luck's at Stanford University, caught his first career touchdown after being signed from the practice squad the day before the game. Since going 6-2 in the first half of the season, Indianapolis had lost three of its last five, struggling with injuries and unproductive play in the first half of games. But the Colts raced to a 20-3 halftime lead, got two interceptions from cornerback Darius Butler and limited the Texans to 239 yards total offense. - - 49ers 33, Buccaneers 14 Staked to just a six-point lead in the fourth quarter, the San Francisco 49ers used a 77-yard drive that helped clinch the victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. San Francisco (10-4) dominated much of the game, but the Bucs rallied to cut the lead to 20-14 on the first play of the fourth. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick came through with two huge third-down conversions - a 13-yard pass to wide receiver Michael Crabtree on third-and-12, then a 10-yard scramble on third-and-6 - to help set up a field goal for a nine-point lead. - - Seahawks 23, Giants 0 Cornerback Richard Sherman picked off three of Eli Manning's five interceptions and the Seattle Seahawks converted two of the New York Giants' turnovers into 14 points en route to the thumping at MetLife Stadium. The five interceptions by Manning are a single-game career high, and extended the Giants' streak of at least one giveaway per game this season. If that was not bad enough, Manning matched his single-season career high of 25 interceptions set in 2010. He now has 169 career turnovers, which passes Charlie Conerly's as the Giants' franchise leader. - - Falcons 27, Redskins 26 There is plenty of drama surrounding coach Mike Shanahan and the Washington Redskins these days. It carried over into Sunday's road game at the Atlanta Falcons. After backup quarterback Kirk Cousins led a scoring drive to pull his team within one point of tying Atlanta, Shanahan elected for a go-ahead two-point conversion instead of an extra point. Cousins' pass was batted down, allowing the Falcons to escape with a win at the Georgia Dome. Shanahan announced in the middle of the week that he was benching starting quarterback Robert Griffin III and turning to Cousins for the final three games. With Griffin in street clothes, watching from the sidelines, Cousins capped a fourth-quarter scoring drive with a touchdown pass to Santana Moss with 22 seconds to play that cut the Falcons lead to 27-26. - - Bears 38, Browns 31 Jay Cutler threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and the Chicago Bears scored 21 unanswered points to complete a come-from-behind victory over the Cleveland Browns. The Bears (8-6) took over first place in the NFC North as the Detroit Lions (7-6) host the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night. The Browns (4-10) lost for the fifth straight time. They led 24-17 to start the fourth quarter and had the Bears pinned at the Chicago 5. Cutler, in his first start since Nov. 10, was 22 of 31 for 265 yards with three touchdowns. - - Bills 27, Jaguars 20 Needing a victory to avoid finishing in last place in the AFC East for the sixth consecutive season, the Buffalo Bills got just that when they defeated Jacksonville, snapping the Jaguars' three-game win streak. The Bills (5-9) also ended a five-game losing streak and won for just the second time on the road this season - both of those victories coming in Florida. They also beat the Miami Dolphins in Week Seven, while Sunday was rookie starting quarterback EJ Manuel's first victory away from Buffalo. - - Vikings 48, Eagles 30 Third-string running back Matt Asiata tied a franchise record with three rushing touchdowns and the Minnesota Vikings hammered the Philadelphia Eaglesat Mall of America Field. Asiata's third score, with 1:08 left in the game, salted away a Vikings victory that was secure for most of the second half. The loss by the Eagles put their NFC East lead over the Dallas Cowboys in peril and made next Sunday night's contest against playoff hopeful Chicago a weighty primetime game. (Compiled by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Gene Cherry)