NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Indianapolis Colts have a kicking problem the team said must be addressed immediately.

Veteran kicker Adam Vinatieri, the NFL's all-time leading scorer, missed two more extra-point kicks and almost became the reason the Colts lost for the second straight week in their 19-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

"Breaks my heart to see it because I know how hard (Vinatieri) works," Colts owner Jim Irsay said outside the locker room after the game. "Of course it's a concern. I can't lie to you guys. Anyone would tell you it's a concern. Adam, coach (Frank Reich), (general manager) Chris (Ballard), me. Yeah, I mean, in this league, it's professional football. We all have to produce.

"The expectation is to win when you're a professional. So we have to figure out where we're at there and see what coach and Chris think is the best direction. And I know Adam will be the most self-honest person of all, so we'll see where we're at."

Vinatieri has lasted 24 years in the NFL by being reliable. But now he's a weak link on the roster for the Colts after the two missed extra points, which are 33-yard kicks. He has already had the same number of missed extra points in two games -- three -- that he missed in all of 2018 on 47 attempts.

"I have zero concern," Reich said. "He hit the upright on the one. You guys probably saw the first one. It was not a good operation. That snap and hold was not clean, the ball barely got on the ground. It was not clean."

Vinatieri took "100 percent" of the blame after missing three kicks in the Colts' Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Vinatieri has now missed an extra point in three straight regular-season games, going back to last season. That's the longest streak of his NFL career. He has also missed an extra point in four of the past five games overall, which includes the playoffs, and he's missed a total of seven kicks in the past three games.

That's a drastic falloff for a kicker who made winning field goals in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII and nailed kicks in blizzard conditions during his career with the New England Patriots.

But time has appeared to catch up with the 46-year-old Vinatieri, who re-signed with the Colts last winter because he thought he could still be effective. Vinatieri, a future Hall of Famer, immediately left the locker room Sunday while saying very few words.

"You'll hear from me (Monday)," he said.

When reminded that Monday is the players' day off, Vinatieri reiterated, "Yeah, you will (hear from me)."

It's been more than 20 years since the Colts have had to worry about their kickers. But now might be the time for Ballard to find Vinatieri's replacement.

"This is a man of very tough cloth, and I know all our fans, like I, hurt with Adam," Irsay said. "No one hurts worse than Adam does."

DENVER -- Chicago Bears kicker Eddy Pineiro kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired to propel Chicago to a 16-14 victory over the Denver Broncos.

Pineiro finished the game 3-for-3 on field goal attempts, including a 52-yard conversion in the second quarter.

"It felt different. This was an emotional kick," Pineiro said afterwards. "With everything I've been through. The whole kicking situation. The Augusta silence. The media, everybody piling on."

The Bears (1-1) went 1-of-2 on 50-yard field goals last season. The last time Chicago made two 50-yard field goals in the same game was 2011 at the Oakland Raiders, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The Bears settled on Pineiro to replace Cody Parkey after an exhaustive offseason search that at one point included nine place-kickers at the club's annual rookie minicamp in May.

The Bears traded for Pineiro in the spring after he spent last year on the Oakland Raiders' injured reserve list.

"I like rooting for good people and he's a good person," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "He fought for a lot to get to this point. He listened to coaches, he trusted himself, and teammates that believe in him. Good things happen to good people. 42-yarder, 52-yarder, 53 to win the game. Can't make that up."

Pineiro, 24, is a perfect 4-for-4 on the season after nailing his lone attempt in last week's season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers.

"Whenever you have a new guy come in, you want to see if that particular player has the 'dawg' in him -- meaning that raw, doesn't care, just going to go in there and compete persona," Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara said. "All throughout training camp, OTAs, we've just seen that in Eddy. He's always had ice in his veins. When he missed one, he was never shaken over it."

Bears guard Kyle Long compared Pineiro's game-winning field goal to the last-second 58-yarder kicked by the New Orleans Saints' Wil Lutz to beat the Houston Texans in Week 1.

"The 30 other teams not involved in that all watched that clip this week. We said before Eddy took the field for that game-winning kick, why not us?," Long said.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The calmness in Matt LaFleur's voice and the smile on Aaron Rodgers' face was all that was left of the first animated sideline interaction between the Green Bay Packers' new head coach and the veteran quarterback in Sunday's 21-16 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

The exchange occurred when Rodgers came off the field after the final possession of the first half, a three-and-out that ended with a Rodgers throwaway on third-and-16.

"It was about the look on defense," Rodgers said. "I was actually kind of surprised that he was coming over to talk about that, but we got it all sorted out over there on the sideline. It actually wasn't a big deal. ... We're a little animated at times. I can't say we were yelling how much we love each other, but we definitely weren't MF-ing each other or anything. It was talking about the look there and getting on the same page."

After another unsuccessful drive to start the second half -- one that ended when Rodgers lost a fumble on the snap -- LaFleur sat next to Rodgers on the bench while the Packers' defense was on the field. Rodgers couldn't remember many times when his head coach sat next to him on the bench while the game was going on.

"It's different," he said, noting that interim coach Joe Philbin did it a couple of times last year in the final four games after Mike McCarthy was fired.

"It's definitely helpful, when he's bouncing stuff off -- 'Do you like this? Do you like that? Do you want to start with this? You want to get to this?'" Rodgers added. "Obviously I did that with Mike a bunch, I'd kind of go to over where he was at, but Matt likes to get cozy on the bench."

Neither Rodgers nor LaFleur were surprised or seemed annoyed by the line of questioning -- a sign they had already moved on from the exchange.

"That's just two competitive guys, and I'm sure it's not going to be the last one we have," LaFleur said. "But you know, just competitors, heat of the moment and it is what it is. I would much rather have that than anything else because you want guys that are extreme competitors, and that's what he is."

A week after the Packers' new offense managed just 213 yards -- 31st in the NFL in Week 1 -- in the 10-3 win at Chicago, Rodgers led touchdown drives on the first three possessions to stake the Packers to a 21-0 lead on Sunday.

For the first time in his NFL career, Rodgers wore a playcalling cheat sheet on his wrist to try to help speed up the offensive tempo.

"This is probably the wordiest offense I've been in since Cal," Rodgers said. "At Cal, we would signal from the sideline and if there was ever a play that needed more than seven signals, we'd wristband that one. I think it just helps with the communication, so he doesn't have to say 12 syllables to me and then I say 12 syllables in the huddle. It helped speed things up a little bit. But we didn't use it a whole lot. We only used it probably five or six times."

Still, the offense sputtered after the opening three drives. The Packers totaled 171 yards on those three scoring drives and then just 164 total net yards on their final 11 possessions.

A fumble by Geronimo Allison and a mistake by Rodgers on what he thought was a first down but instead was a fourth-and-1 ended drives in Vikings territory.

"I think they made some adjustments and we did as well," said Rodgers, who completed 22 of 34 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. "We just didn't execute. We had some chances at some stuff. I think they just tightened up. They made some good plays on contested balls. We had three or four opportunities for a contested catch and they made plays on the ball, which would have been big plays. Marquez [Valdes-Scantling] had one where he kind of got carried out of bounds. Davante [Adams] had one on their sideline. [Aaron Jones], I underthrew that one. But those plays, not converting them hurt. And then obviously we were driving there and then G-Mo trying to get some extra yards kind of took away some points there. And then my bonehead play took away some points as well."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Derek Carr is not one to usually argue with game officials. But on this occasion, the Oakland Raiders quarterback was steamed.

Carr had just thrown his second interception in the third quarter of the Raiders' 28-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, when a flag came flying in. Surely, it would be for defensive pass interference after Oakland receiver Ryan Grant was knocked off his route by Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu, milliseconds before Kansas City's Charvarius Ward snagged the pass meant for Grant, no?

No. Grant was called for offensive pass interference, and the Chiefs declined the penalty.

"The second interception will blow my mind forever," Carr said. "It was offensive pass interference; they said he was blocking. So, I asked the man, I said, 'Sir, why would I throw him the ball if he was blocking?'

"And he didn't have an answer and just walked away. I don't know what to do in that sense. We got the coverage we want, we got the exact look we want, I'm throwing it to where I'm supposed to throw it, and they tackle our receiver -- yet it's a penalty on us. This is changing the outcome of a football game. That shouldn't happen. That blows my mind. When things like that happen, I get kind of upset."

It was the second straight series ended by a Carr pick, after he threw a jump ball to Tyrell Williams on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line that was hauled in by Bashaud Breeland in the end zone (it was the third pick of Carr's career thrown on first-and-goal).

On the Grant play, the Raiders, trailing 28-10 late in the third quarter, were facing second-and-7 at their own 47-yard line.

"It was a slant pattern," Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. "I've never had an offensive pass interference called on a slant, but we did today and that one worked against us as well."

It was not all bad for Carr on the day, though, as he surpassed late Hall of Famer Ken Stabler to become the Raiders' all-time leader in passing yardage after throwing for 198 yards on 23-of-38 passing with a touchdown and two interceptions against the Chiefs. Carr has thrown for 19,196 yards in his career; Stabler passed for 19,078 yards for Oakland.

Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas has finished an emotional and gruelling triathlon challenge - on the day he revealed he has HIV.

The former Wales captain said he was determined to complete the Ironman event in Pembrokeshire to help dismiss the stigma some still attach to the disease.

He captured the hearts of the crowds in Tenby, who cheered him around the epic swim, bike ride and road race.

He finished in just over 12 hours - greeted by his husband Stephen at the finish line.

MOHNTON, Pa. – It’s been more than a year since Jack Beckman parked his Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car in an NHRA winner’s circle.

On Sunday at the 35th annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil, that dry spell came to an end.

Not only did Beckman defeat John Force in the final round at Maple Grove Raceway, he also took over the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points lead in the process.

“Our Sunday, I think it was perfect,” Beckman said. “That car was consistent, and it was fast. It’s one thing to be consistent and be a 10th (of a second) off the field but to run numbers as good as any other car out here, up and down the race track all four runs on race day.”

Richie Crampton (Top Fuel), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were victors in their respective divisions at the first race of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Beckman had been the runner-up four times in 2019 but it was his 3.958-second pass at 330.07 mph that gave him the holeshot win over Force’s quicker 3.952-second run. One of the runner-up finishes was just two weeks ago at the U.S. Nationals against Force.

“In NHRA, you have zero control over what the car and driver in the other lane are doing. Did I want to beat him? Of course. Did it sting that he beat us in the Indy final? Duh. But none of that was going to help me be any better. Some fans came over before the final and said, ‘Hey, we’ll go razz John.’ And I said, ‘Don’t poke the bear.’ That guy, always seems to find a way to get motivated and win more races.”

It was a battle of Kalitta Motorsports in the Top Fuel final round but it was Crampton who raised the Wally trophy when he defeated his teammate Doug Kalitta with his 3.738-second pass at 329.10 mph in his DHL dragster. Crampton now ties team owner and NHRA legend Connie Kalitta with 10 wins.

D. Kalitta snagged the Top Fuel points lead when previous leader and reigning champion Steve Torrence made an early exit in round one.

“It was definitely a great day for the whole team,” Crampton said. “All four cars are running good, particularly the dragsters, of course. But for Doug to take the points lead heading out of here, and we made a good jump in the points as well, that’s what we need to do. It’s that time of the year. It’s time to execute on race day and Connie and (crew chief) Kurt Elliott gave me the car to do it.”

Line earned his 50th Pro Stock title when he defeated Fernando Cuadra in the final round of eliminations thanks to his 6.553-second pass at 210.60 mph in his Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro. Line also took over the points lead from his KB teammate Bo Butner. Cuadra, who was completing in his first career final round, is also a KB powered car.

“It was a big victory, for sure,” Line said. “Not one of my shiner moments, but big victory, nonetheless. I was a little tardy (leaving the starting line) so not what you want to do in the final round. But 50 wins just means I’ve had some great race cars to drive and some great people I’ve gotten to work with over the years. It’s been a fun ride.”

Savoie picked up his second consecutive win on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki. He took down Steve Johnson with his 6.774-second lap at 198.55 mph in the final round and went on to claim the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead.

“It was just a great, great day for everyone. My whole team. I don’t take any of this credit. (Crew chief) Tim (Kulungian) and everybody on the team worked their butts off and here we are. At my age, I can do it. I didn’t count on making the top 10 because I took three races off. And, bam! Here we are. No one, not even myself expected this.”

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - Joaquin Niemann became the first player from Chile to win on the PGA Tour, shooting a 6-under 64 on Sunday for a six-stroke victory in A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier.

The 20-year-old Niemann entered the final round of the season opener with a two-stroke lead and Niemann held off challenges from Tom Hoge and Richy Werenski.

Niemann birdied the final three holes to finish at 21-under 259 at Old White TPC.

It marks the first year since 1931 that there has been more than one tour winner under 21. Matthew Wolff won the 3M Open in June at 20 years, 2 months.

Niemann is the first third-round leader to win at The Greenbrier since its debut in 2010.

Hoge shot 65 and finished second at 15 under. Werenski faded to a 69 and finished in a four-way tie for third at 14 under.

D.C. United caught a much-needed break on Sunday, getting a first-half own goal and then holding on for a 1-0 road win against the Portland Timbers in a key clash of teams fighting to stay playoff-eligible.

D.C. United (12-10-9, 45 points) nearly benefited from a second own goal in the first half, but it was denied on a controversial call after a VAR review.

The tough-luck defeat for the Timbers (13-12-4, 43 points), in a game played amid a steady rain, prevented them from making a move in a crowded Western Conference.

A loose ball in front of the Portland goal in the 37th minute bounced off goalkeeper Steve Clark and appeared to cross the goal line for a D.C. United score before it was cleared by midfielder Eryk Williamson. Officials did not find a frame on replay that showed the ball completely across the goal line.

There was no denying the first Portland miscue that gave D.C. United a 1-0 lead. Midfielder Ulises Segura delivered a cross in front of the Portland goal that was redirected by Timbers defender Bill Tuiloma and off the leg of Clark, who was moving in the opposite direction.

The goal in the 25th minute held up despite relentless pressure on offense by the Timbers in the second half. Portland had a 23-7 advantage on shots.

The defeat left the Timbers 7-4-2 at home the season as they work their way through a quirky schedule that started with 12 consecutive road games due to a stadium remodel. Portland is now in the midst of 10 consecutive home games, but is just 4-3-0 in that stretch.

D.C. has now won consecutive games after a three-game losing streak in mid-August. It was D.C. United's first MLS game since Aug. 31 because of the recent international break.

D.C. has three games remaining while Portland still has five games left to play.

At the end of an English summer and an Ashes series that had provided so many passages to remember, Jofra Archer and Matthew Wade squared up for the last of them. Archer was striving for a final burst of wickets to seal the Test, Wade for a century to underline his re-emergence as a batsman of quality after too many years as an indifferent wicketkeeper.

Even if the Ashes were already Australia's and the match was more or less already England's, 24,000 spectators were transfixed one more time as Archer, for the umpteenth time, backed up his words that the touring coach Justin Langer had "another thing coming" after suggesting that Test cricket would beat the 24-year-old down with its sheer physical brutality.

Undoubtedly, Wade had enriched the occasion through his series-long dialogue when in the field, yammering away at whoever would listen and many who would not, at one point talking across Archer about their shared history at the Hobart Hurricanes and how, in the opinion of Travis Head, the fast man would be moving across Bass Strait to the Adelaide Strikers next summer. All this history, plus the sense that this was summer's final fling, made for a wondrous contest.

"We all thought he'd slow down eventually but I can tell you that, through that spell, he certainly didn't slow down too much, and he kept coming," Wade said. "I was saying to Patty 'he's going again'. Patty was like 'you're right, you'll get through'. I was like 'yeah, we've been saying that for four overs now!'. He just keeps coming and coming. It's good hard Test cricket, I was feeling comfortable with the way I was playing.

"I felt like I could deal with what he was delivering, and he obviously thought he could rip my head off or get me out. It was a good battle, there was a little bit of banter, no words really. Just good, hard Test cricket. That's what I expected coming into an Ashes series, I'd never played an Ashes series before and the way Jofra has taken to Test cricket - I knew he was obviously a freakish talent - and when he was around the England team I knew he'd be playing this series.

"That's what Test cricket is. Especially Ashes cricket, you've got to be ready for the contest. It's a take-no-prisoners kind of environment when you walk onto the ground and when you walk off the ground, all is forgotten. You move on with your lives, hopefully he comes to Hobart and plays with me again but we'll wait and see. That's the way it is."

At the height of the battle, Archer struck Wade a stinging blow on the shoulder, something the Tasmanian did his very best to shrug off. "A little bit of a bruise. I wasn't showing him too much, I wasn't letting him know, that would have got him going again. I don't know how many overs he bowled in a row, it felt like a long, long time so I wasn't showing him too much pain. I was just trying to get through it."

The spell, all up, lasted for eight overs and ended wicketless. Wade went on to his fourth Test century, going a long way to shoring up his spot for the Gabba Test against Pakistan in November, and demonstrating how he had, at critical times, found ways to survive more effectively than the other left-handers on the tour - none of whom managed to reach three figures. Wade walked towards Australia's viewing area to toast his century, applauded by none other than Steve Waugh, who had seen off similar bursts by Curtly Ambrose and company decades before.

"I think the new ball was obviously quite difficult for our left-handers at the top of the order, with the way Stuart [Broad] was bowling, scrambled seam as well," Wade said. "To be honest through the middle - facing Stuart and Jofra, I was quite comfortable facing those two through the whole tour. So I can only speak on what I faced. I obviously hit the ball in slightly different areas to the guys at the top of the order. But no doubt, the guys at the top of the order would love to have scored a lot more runs.

"Round the wicket was really, really effective to our left-handers at the top of the order, But personally I felt quite comfortable against those two. I bat on an off stump guard, and feel like if they get outside my body I can leave them. If they come straight, I've got to hit it, otherwise I'm in trouble. But we've got to get better in all departments. Barring Smithy, nobody really lit it up this tour for us."

Whether or not Wade is still playing Test cricket in two years is very much an open question, but he reckoned that Archer would pose a considerable, if somewhat different, challenge on faster and truer Australian pitches. "I think he'll be a handful on any pitch he plays on. Traditionally Australia is a little bit easier to play the short ball especially, because of the consistency of the bounce," he said. "You can get under balls, but in this series you saw a lot of guys ducking into balls, myself included.

"The pace of the wickets aren't the same as what we have, and the consistency in Australia. He'll be hard work, you've gotta bowl probably a touch fuller than what you can bowl sometimes over here with the slowness of the pitches and not as much bounce. But he's going to be a handful on any pitch that he bowls on over the next couple of years, and Australia will be no different. At least with his bouncer you can trust that you can get underneath it which will be nice, instead of copping it on the body."

Reflecting on the series, Wade defended his verbally active ways, and there were certainly few signs of animosity at the end-of-season party, as both teams mixed freely. "That's the great thing about Ashes cricket and the way this series was played," Wade said. "There was no abuse throughout this series - it was hard Test cricket. I know there's been a lot of stuff reported and written, on the ground it's just been good, hard cricket. I can only speak for myself, and for the whole team in our dressing room. Once you walk off the ground, all is forgotten.

ALSO READ: Why Australia deserved to go home with the Ashes

"We don't really need to jump in and talk about in the media. Whatever happens on the ground stays on the ground, that's just the way Australian cricket teams play. But I can tell you now it's been a tame series compared to other series I've played in."

Tame, though, did not reflect how consuming the atmosphere of an Ashes series can be. Even Wade, who had spoken at length after his Edgbaston century about the perspective he had found since his previous stint in the national team, admitted that it was easy to get caught up.

"It's been difficult at times. I think you get caught up at times in the whirlwind of Test cricket, and this series and everything that's reported," he said. ""It can grind on you pretty quick. I'm lucky to have my family over here, two kids keep you away from the game a lot and keep your mind off the game and they don't care too much what's going on at the ground.

"But it is important to understand that it is only a game and that everyone is doing their best, and when we walk away in 20 years there won't be too many people talking about us."

But they will talk, for many years, about Archer and Wade at The Oval, just like they will about Smith, Stokes, Broad, Cummins and the bewitching summer of 2019. Rightly so.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen became just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to beat the New York Jets and New York Giants on the road in consecutive weeks.

Riding the wave of a three-game winning streak dating back to the 2018 season, Allen had some fun with a question asked during his postgame news conference after Sunday's 28-14 victory over the Giants.

A reporter began a question by pointing out to Allen there was a chance he "could have ended up in New York," given the Jets' and Giants' interest in him during the 2018 draft process.

Allen smiled before interrupting the question.

"I am in New York," he said.

After a brief laugh, Allen was asked what he thought he proved to "the New York City fans" and "the New York teams."

Once again, Allen offered a quick-witted response.

"Um, [there's] one New York team," he said, pointing and winking at the reporter. "I'm just kidding. But I care about what the Bills are doing, how our teammates respond, how I play. To have a 'C' on my chest and to go out there and put everything on the line for those guys is what I'm striving to do."

Both the Jets' and Giants' practice facilities are located in New Jersey, as is their shared MetLife Stadium. Geographically, the Buffalo Bills are the only NFL team to practice and play in New York state. That fact is a point of pride among Bills fans, many of whom took to social media to voice their pleasure with Allen's comments.

Regardless of where the Bills' past two games were played, Allen looked comfortable, starting his second NFL season by setting a career high over a two-game span with 507 combined passing yards.