TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jayden Daniels ran for a critical first down to set up Zane Gonzalez’s 37-yard field goal that clanged off the right upright and went through as time expired, and the Washington Commanders beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 in an NFC wild-card game Sunday night for the franchise’s first playoff win in 6,945 days.
Daniels, playing with a bandage beneath his right eye after his face was bloodied, became the third rookie quarterback in three years to win a playoff game.
The Commanders (13-5) will face the No. 1 seed Detroit Lions (15-2) in the divisional round.
Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers (10-8) missed several opportunities and the veteran quarterback committed a critical turnover in the fourth quarter. The Bucs couldn’t get 1 yard on two tries from the Commanders 12 and settled for a field goal to tie the game before Washington’s winning drive.
Daniels threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns, joining C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy as rookie QBs to win playoff games in the past three seasons.
BILLS 31, BRONCOS 7
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, James Cook scored on a 5-yard run and finished with 120 yards rushing, and Buffalo leaned on a balanced offensive attack in a win over Denver in a wild-card playoff game.
The Bills methodically wore down the Broncos by scoring on six of their first seven drives in building a 31-7 lead in a game where they finished with a 23-minute edge in time of possession.
And Buffalo didn’t flinch after rookie Bo Nix capped Denver’s five-play game-opening drive with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Troy Franklin.
With Buffalo leading 13-7, Allen broke the game open with a 24-yard touchdown pass to sliding running back Ty Johnson in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-1 with 3:06 left in the third quarter.
On Buffalo’s next possession, Allen completed a 55-yard pass to Curtis Samuel on the first snap of the fourth quarter.
The five-time defending AFC East champion Bills advanced to the divisional round for a fifth straight postseason, and will face the third-seeded Baltimore Ravens Sunday.
EAGLS 22, PACKERS 10
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts tossed two touchdown passes in his first game since a late-season concussion, Dallas Goedert threw three stiff-arms on a rugged touchdown catch and Philadelphia rode their NFL-best defense to a 22-10 wild-card playoff win over Green Bay.
Hurts threw for a modest 131 yards but played with no hesitation in his return from a three-week layoff after a concussion in December. He started strong — six straight completions to open the game — and held off the Packers with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Goedert in the third quarter that will be forever stamped on the franchise’s postseason highlight reel.
Philadelphia’s defense handled the rest.
The Eagles turned a recovered fumble on the opening kickoff into Hurts’ first TD pass three plays later and the defense picked off Jordan Love twice in the first half. Holding a 19-10 lead in the fourth, the Eagles forced a turnover on downs when Green Bay had a fourth-and-3 on its own 41 with five minutes left in the game.
Quinyon Mitchell had one final interception of Love with 1:51 left in the game that sealed the win for the NFC East champions, who’ll play either the L.A. Rams or the Minnesota Vikings Sunday at the Linc.
Love threw for 212 yards and was intercepted three times as he nursed a sore right elbow that was hurt in the regular-season finale against Chicago.
Washington Commanders place kicker Zane Gonzalez, right, is congratulated by teammates after kicking the game winning field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The real peril of dumping your body in the belly of a “redneck wheelchair” for a wheelbarrow race comes when you fail to grip both sides of the vehicle. Leave one hand dangling, as one Daytona 500 fan foolishly did last year, and the tip of a finger may get sliced off and lost in the infield muck.
The afterparty morphed into a search party for the missing digit, iPhone lights on, people on knees scouring the ground in what proved to be a futile hunt. The finger never got restitched, though the fan did make a triumphant return to racing, only next time with gloves.
“The more they drink,” wheelbarrow race founder Cush Revette said, “the stupider they get.”
When the sun goes down at Daytona International Speedway, the green flag drops on the infield bash that annually celebrates the over-the-top campy nature of race week.
Wheel out the wheelbarrows. Bust out the karaoke machines and crank the volume to 11. Belly up to the homemade bars built with enough lumber to thin out a Home Depot.
At Daytona after dark, the good times never stop, even when the racing does at a track where, in both speed and celebrations, there are no limits.
The later it gets, the crazier it gets, and revelers compete in the booze-fueled races at their own risk. Though, the organizer noted, paramedics are stationed nearby.
“No liability whatsoever,” Revette said, laughing. “Just a whole lot of fun after the race.”
Line ’em up!
The No. 9 wheelbarrow rests next to one with the General Lee paint scheme, which is next to one nicknamed “Ross Crashtain” and on they go, the fastest cart on one wheel, where competitors sprint and stumble around a makeshift path to the finish — just keep an eye on the checkered flag stuck in the orange cone.
“Just rednecks coming through,” Revette said. “Couldn’t pass a sobriety test in the a.m., much less at night.”
Take a bleary-eyed look around, and the biggest party on a Daytona property so massive it houses its own lake is surely raging somewhere.
In the midst of a row of flashy RVs where flags for Earnhardt and Elliott fly, the baddest bar inside the speedway emerges. Named in honor of its designated spot and color destination, the joint dubbed Red 38 operates like your local neighborhood pub has been picked up and plopped inside the track.
Shots are freely passed around to Daytona regulars — keep an eye out for the Toxic Twins — and passersby. Bottles of booze line the shelves behind the bar and beer flows like at any other watering hole. The louder the music, the better chance some of the men will strip off their shirts and dance the night away. Two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip and scores of NASCAR drivers have popped in for a nightcap and more over the last 17 years.
Cocktail attire required? Please. Try American flag overalls if you want to grab a seat at the bar and catch a game on the big screen.
“Seriously, where else can I go and I get to participate in some beverages, we can play music pretty much as loud as we want, we can smoke cigars, we can tell bad jokes for 10 straight days,” Red 38 founder Bill Fenton said.
Only at Daytona is tailgating as much of a sport as anything happening on the track.
Strong of heart, strong of foot, stronger of liver.
Step inside Red 38 and the roar of the stock cars is about the only sign its location is a racetrack. A banner displays the Speedweeks specials: red beans, rice and gumbo were served at the Super Bowl party, bartender Carmine mixed up old fashioneds at a Bourbon & Cigars night, and put on your neon and “whatever glows” for Saturday’s blacklight party.
Red 38 has last call around midnight (or two hours after track activity ends), but the carousing never really slows down.
“If you’ve got enough gas left in you, you can go two hours after that,” Fenton said. “You usually don’t.”
Hitch a ride on a tricked-out golf cart with under-glow lighting and rap music pulsating, zip past the neon palm trees and the scores of fans playing cornhole and stop when you hear JR Richards belt out “Friends in Low Places.”
Richards, of Mound, Minnesota, and his camping setup double as the hot spot for karaoke night, and everyone is invited. He made friends with other campers, and they have teamed up for years to provide the best in pre-recorded music. No guarantees on the quality of singers.
Last year, on a rainy night, more than 70 campers crammed under the tent for a rousing rendition of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
“It was probably the best experience I’ve ever been part of,” Richards said. “It’s more of a culture. Everyone’s looking out for each other. It’s a family environment. We’ve known people for 12 years here. We love to see them every time we come. We hang out with them pretty much all day and all night. It’s what we love to do.”
Plus, to the best of Richards’ knowledge, no camper has ever been injured belting out Garth Brooks. He can’t say the same about the time he went around the bend to watch wheelbarrow racing.
“I got ran over by the wheelbarrow a couple of years ago,” he said. “They kind of ran over my ankle.”
Climb up one ladder, then one more, over a few cardboard cutouts of NASCAR drivers and beer girls, and the 15-foot-high observation deck offers nearly a 360-degree view of the track — and comes with wafting whiffs of the Boston butt smoking on the grill.
Jay Colburn, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and seven childhood friends — Colburn reunited the group following a near-death experience and has spent thousands to make this happen — have camped at Daytona for eight years. They add to the spot annually, with the latest upgrade being a car hauler that Colburn converted into a five-bedroom suite with air conditioning; they grew tired of doubling up in a four-bed camper.
Colburn’s favorite memory? A NASCAR driver he declined to name that wrecked his golf cart by a nearby bar.
“He had about eight people hanging off his cart and he drove into somebody down there,” Colburn said. “And he got cussed out by a girl. They had to get him out of there. Just people being people.”
Let the guessing game begin.
Colburn believes there’s at least one infield rookie who would enjoy himself at his camping space: He’s counting on President Donald Trump returning to the Daytona 500 for the second time in five years. He gleefully recalled Trump’s pace lap in the armored presidential limo called “The Beast” in 2020.
There’s a chance a passenger car leaving the track might get shouted down by a kid and challenged to race a remote-control car. The beers, try four bucks for a 25-ounce can! Good luck scoring that deal at an NFL stadium or NBA arena. The flags, they promise it’s a “Bad Day To Be A Beer.” Dozens and dozens of crushed cans near each tent prove that slogan true.
Eventually it’s time to park the wheelbarrows, mute the microphones and chug that last beer.
No need to set an alarm for when the sun rises. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will soon boom overhead to wake up everybody — and start the clock ticking toward the next party.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Fans fill the infield during activities before the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 19, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Graham, File)
Chase Briscoe(19) leads the field at the start during the first of two NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying auto races Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
