HEADLINE

Fitzpatrick, Mahomes earn NFL weekly honors again

The Sports Xchange

September 19, 2018 at 10:54 am.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kansas City Chiefs passer Patrick Mahomes were honored by the NFL for the second consecutive week.

The league announced Wednesday that Fitzpatrick was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week after tossing four touchdown passes in his second straight contest. Mahomes did Fitzpatrick two better on Sunday, throwing for six scores in the Chiefs’ 42-37 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Fitzpatrick followed his sterling season-opening performance with another in the Buccaneers’ 27-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. He joined Mahomes (2018) and New England’s Drew Bledsoe (1997) by throwing for at least four touchdown passes in back-to-back contests to begin the season.

The 35-year-old Fitzpatrick completed 27 of 33 passes for 402 yards against the Eagles to join New England’s Tom Brady (2011) and Carolina’s Cam Newton (2011) as the only players in NFL history to record at least 400 passing yards in each the first two games of the season. Fitzpatrick is the first NFL quarterback to throw for at least 400 yards in consecutive games since Philip Rivers in 2013.

This is Fitzpatrick’s seventh career Offensive Player of the Week award, having earned the honor twice this season as well as with the then-St. Louis Rams (Week 12, 2005), the Houston Texans (Week 13, 2014) and the New York Jets (Weeks 14 and 16, 2015; Week 2, 2016).

Mahomes finished Sunday’s game versus the Steelers by completing 23 of 28 passes for 326 yards. He has thrown for 582 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first season as a starting quarterback.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors after recording 18 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in Sunday’s 21-9 win over the Washington Redskins. Leonard became just the fourth Colts rookie to earn AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors, joining defensive end Steve Emtman (Week 8, 1992), defensive end Dwight Freeney (Week 10, 2002) and outside linebacker Jonathan Newsome (Week 17, 2014).

Chicago linebacker Danny Trevathan earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors after registering his first career two-sack performance in Monday’s 24-17 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. He also had six tackles.

Tennessee Titans safety Dane Cruikshank was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week after scoring a 66-yard touchdown off a pass from Kevin Byard on a fake punt during a 20-17 victory over the Texans.

San Francisco 49ers kicker Robbie Gould was named the NFC Special Teams Player of Week after drilling three field goals, including the eventual game-winner on a 36-yard attempt in the fourth quarter of a 30-27 triumph over the Detroit Lions.

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