Sports: Lions lose on NFL Rule

The Lions lost to the Atlanta Falcons at Ford Field, 30-26.   It looked like Matthew Stafford would pull out another of his many last minute come-from-behind wins, but an NFL rule did in the Lions, taking away their chance to beat the defending NFC Champs at Ford Field Sunday.  Matthew Stafford's apparent touchdown pass to Golden Tate was ruled to be just short of the end zone in the final seconds after a review.  The call on the field overturned and, by rule, 10 seconds had to run off the clock and that ended the game because Detroit didn't have any timeouts.  Lions coach Jim Caldwell agreed that the call was made correctly and the rule was applied properly.

Atlanta Quarterback Matt Ryan hadn’t thrown an interception in nine games, but he was picked off three times and sacked twice by the Lions on Sunday.

Stafford was 25 of 45 for 264 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

The Lions play at Minnesota next Sunday.

Lions-Anthem

Several Detroit Lions players kneeled during the national anthem and linked arms with standing players, the coach and team owner Martha Firestone Ford — part of a unified protest against comments made by President Donald Trump. Some fans booed at Ford Field during the actions.  The Titans, Seahawks and Steelers,  remained in the locker room as the national anthem was played, except for Steelers’ starting left tackle Alejandro Villanueva.  Villanueva is a West Point graduate and was the only Steeler out there for the anthem.

NFL

The Bears beat the Steelers, 23-17.

Aaron Rodgers' 72-yard pass to Geronimo Allison set up Mason Crosby's 26-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Green Bay Packers past the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24.

And the New England Patriots pulled out a 36-33 win over the Houston Texans on Tom Brady's 25-yard scoring strike to Brandin Cooks with 23 seconds left.

A 61-yard field goal by rookie Eagles kicker Jake Elliot with one second left beat the Giants 27-to-24.  It was only Elliot's second NFL game ever.

Vikings backup quarterback Case Keenum, undrafted out of Houston, went 25 of 33 for 369 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions or sacks in Minnesota’s 34-17 win over Tampa Bay.

Monday Night Football tonight has Dallas at Arizona.

Tigers

Minnesota beat the Detroit Tigers 10-4 Sunday to complete a four-game sweep that moved the Twins closer to securing a wild-card playoff berth. The Twins outscored the Tigers 39-12 in the sweep.

Jorge Polanco and Eduardo Escobar homered, for the Twins.   Ian Kinsler homered for the Tigers.

Miguel Cabrera has been diagnosed with two herniated disks in his back. Cabrera left Saturday's 10-4 loss to Minnesota due to tightness in his lower back.  Outfielder Mikie Matook has a groin injury and is done for the season.

Detroit has lost seven straight and 14 of 16.  They are in last place in the Central Division, and are 36 games behind first-place Cleveland.

The Tigers are on the road to finish the 2017 season, with three in Kansas City starting Tuesday, and three in Minnesota this weekend.

MLB

The Arizona Diamondbacks clinched their first postseason berth in six years before completing a 3-2 victory against Miami. J.D. Martinez won the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth.

Colorado has a two game lead over Milwaukee for the final Wild Card spot in the National League.  The Cardinals are 2 ½ games out.

The Twins are 4 ½ in front of the Angels and are on the verge of clinching a Wild Card spot.

Red Wings

The Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins 5-1 on Saturday to open the new Little Caesar’s Arena in downtown Detroit. Three of the final four pre-season games will be played this week at the new building, including tonight’s game with Pittsburgh.   The regular season starts there October 5^th against the Wild.

The Pistons, who are moving downtown from The Palace of Auburn Hills in the suburbs, will take the court in the same space October 4th against Charlotte.

The NASCAR Cup Series

Kyle Busch earned a spot in the second round of NASCAR's playoffs with an easy victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Golf

Xander Schauffele had a three-foot birdie putt on the final hole to earn a one-shot win over Justin Thomas in the PGA Tour Championship.  Schauffele closed with a 2-under 68 to become the first PGA Tour rookie to win the Tour Championship. However, Thomas played well enough to claim the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus.