NFL notes: NFL suspends Giants WR Beckham for 1 game

Losing control during Sunday’s loss to the Panthers will cost Giants star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. one game.

The NFL on Monday suspended Beckham for next weekend’s visit to Minnesota for his conduct against Carolina, when he drew three personal foul penalties. The league cited “multiple violations of safety-related playing rules.”

Beckham has the right to appeal the suspension within three business days. Without him, the Giants (6-8) would be missing their best offensive weapon as they try to stay alive in the NFC East race.

Beckham and Panthers cornerback Josh Norman tangled from the beginning of the Panthers’ 38-35 victory. At one point, Beckham delivered a diving helmet-to-helmet hit on Norman while blocking.

There was plenty of pushing, shoving, swinging, wrestling, late hits and trash talking between them.

Beckham, the 2014 Offensive Rookie of the Year, has 91 catches for 1,396 yards and 13 touchdowns, tied for the league lead. He has a base salary of $893,000 and would lose $55,813 for being suspended for Sunday night’s game.

The suspension was imposed by NFL Vice President of Football Operations Merton Hanks, who ruled that Beckham’s actions placed his opponents at unnecessary risk of injury and should have been avoided.

“At numerous times during (Sunday’s) game against the Carolina Panthers, your actions placed a fellow player at unnecessary risk and clearly did not represent the high standards of sportsmanship expected,” Hanks said in a letter to Beckham.

Hanks specifically pointed to a late helmet-to-helmet hit against a defenseless player in which Beckham left his feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent (Norman); lowered his helmet and initiated forcible contact with his helmet; and forcibly struck the defenseless player’s head.

This “blindside block” was particularly flagrant because Beckham, with a 10-yard running start, had an unobstructed path to his opponent, the position of the opponent was not impacted by any other player, and the contact with the head/neck was avoidable, the NFL’s statement said.

The conduct of other players in the game is being reviewed by the NFL for potential fines.

Beckham will not be permitted this week to be at the Giants’ practice facility. He is barred from team meetings, attending or watching practices; attending Sunday’s game; or having contact with any club personnel except to arrange off-site medical treatment or rehabilitation.

He will be reinstated next Monday.

After Sunday’s game, Beckham refused to discuss his run-ins with Norman. There was no media availability with Beckham on Monday.

Asked about the personal fouls, he said Sunday, “You never want to hurt your team like that. I have learned it all throughout my life you know, always (the) second man gets called, always that it is just unfortunate. You go back and watch the film tomorrow and you learn from it.”

Norman was infuriated by the helmet-to-helmet hit and called for the league to look at Beckham’s play.

“He was 15 yards down the field and went straight for my head. It was just crazy, man,” Norman said.

“He’s got the maturity of a little kid,” Norman added of Beckham, who finished with six catches for 72 yards and a touchdown and also dropped a sure TD pass in the first quarter.

Moore set to be 4th starting QB for Cowboys this season

Kellen Moore will be the fourth starting quarterback for Dallas this season after replacing Matt Cassel and sparking the offense in a loss to the New York Jets.

Coach Jason Garrett said Moore would start Sunday at Buffalo after making his first regular-season appearance in his fourth NFL season in Saturday’s 19-16 loss to the Jets.

Moore threw a touchdown pass to Dez Bryant, but had three interceptions.

Tony Romo missed seven games with a broken left collarbone and was lost for the season after breaking it again in his second game back. Cassel was 1-6 filling in for Romo after Brandon Weeden went 0-3 following the first injury.

The Cowboys (4-10) and Bills (6-8) are eliminated from playoff contention.

Panthers spokesman: DBs didn’t taunt Beckham with bat

A Carolina Panthers spokesman says the team’s defensive backs regularly bring a baseball bat on the field during pre-game warmups “to get up” for opponents because it “represents them bringing the wood and making home run plays on defense.”

Steven Drummond denied that any member of the team used the bat to threaten New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. before Carolina’s 38-35 win on Sunday. Panthers cornerback Josh Norman was involved in several altercations during the game with Beckham, who was suspended for one game by the league on Monday.

Drummond says the bat tradition is “nothing new.”

He said players took the bat to New York as a way of remembering cornerback Bene Benwikere, who suffered a season-ending broken leg against Atlanta.

Cardinals’ ‘Honey Badger’ out for season with torn ACL

For the second time in his three-year NFL career, Tyrann Mathieu is out for the season with a torn ACL.

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians revealed the extent of the injury at his news conference.

The popular safety/cornerback – “Honey Badger” to his fans – injured his right knee after intercepting a pass in the final minutes of Sunday night’s 40-17 victory at Philadelphia.

He tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee 13 games into his rookie season in 2013.

No longer having to wear the knee brace that slowed him in 2014, Mathieu was having an outstanding season and was the NFC Defensive Player of the Month for November. He is third on the team in tackles with 89 – behind former Washington State Cougar Deone Bucannon’s 110 and Kevin Minter’s 91 – and is tied with safety Rashad Johnson for the team lead in interceptions with five.

“He set goals and he was attaining them,” Arians said. “I thought he should be right there with Patrick (Peterson) for (NFL) defensive player of the year. I don’t think there was any doubt he was having that type of season, and it’s a shame with two games left. And it’s always a non-contact injury when these things happen.”

It was after that fifth interception that he came down awkwardly on his right leg and fell to the turf. He flexed his injured leg as he lay on his back, then limped off the field with 2:33 to play.

There had been some optimism because Mathieu was walking without a limp after the game.

“He felt very relieved because he was walking fine (after the game),” Arians said. “He’s still walking fine, it’s just the MRI says differently.”

The victory clinched the NFC West title for the Cardinals and gave them their first 12-win season in the history of a franchise that dates to 1920.

“I’m very happy for obvious reasons,” Arians said, “other than it’s very bittersweet when you lose a guy like Ty.”

No change yet at quarterback for Denver Broncos

Brock Osweiler remains the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback pending medical tests on his injured left shoulder, and Peyton Manning will try to return to practice Wednesday.

Coach Gary Kubiak said “nothing has changed” with his QB situation, a day after Denver blew a double-digit halftime lead for the second consecutive week.

Kubiak said Osweiler was “sore today … and all indications are that he’ll be OK.”

Osweiler was injured when he scrambled for 7 yards in the second quarter of Denver’s 34-27 loss at Pittsburgh, where the Broncos (10-4) blew a 17-point lead.

Manning has missed five weeks with a torn left plantar fascia.

Kubiak will meet with both QBs and “have a plan in place when we get to Wednesday.”

Steven Jackson says he has become Patriots running back

Veteran running back Steven Jackson announced via his Twitter account that he is joining the New England Patriots.

The Patriots have been ravaged by injuries, including to running backs Dion Lewis and LeGarrette Blount.

Jackson, who hasn’t played this season after spending the last two years with the Falcons, posted a picture of himself from the back on Twitter, accompanied by the words, “I’m back” – his first tweet since September.

Later, his Twitter page called him a “New England Patriots running back.”

No announcement was made by the team, which isn’t required to do so until the contract is official.

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was with St. Louis when Jackson was the top runner in 2011.

Jackson, 32, ran for 1,250 yards and 12 touchdowns, and had 53 catches for the Falcons the past two seasons. He had eight straight 1,000-yard seasons with the Rams.

1 and done: Redskins can clinch NFC East by beating Eagles

Forget about complicated playoff permutations. It has suddenly all become so simple for the Washington Redskins: Win their game against the Philadelphia Eagles next weekend, and coach Jay Gruden’s club will clinch the NFC East title.

Won’t matter how the New York Giants do.

Won’t matter what happens in Week 17.

“To have a chance and have your team in a position to possibly win the division this late,” Gruden said., “is obviously what you coach for – these moments and these games.”

After finishing last in their division in six of the past seven seasons, the Redskins (7-7) are in charge of things, thanks in part to finally claiming two consecutive victories for the first time all season by beating the Buffalo Bills 35-25 on Sunday, behind Kirk Cousins’ four touchdown passes, zero interceptions and a run for a score.

Didn’t hurt that the other three teams in the NFC East all lost last week, leaving the Eagles and Giants tied for second at 6-8. If Washington runs its winning streak to three games with a victory at Philadelphia on Saturday night, the Redskins will double their win total from last season, Gruden’s first as an NFL head coach, and assure themselves of hosting a playoff game against a wild-card team.

“We just keep taking steps forward. I’ve said all along it’s a process. I don’t think everything gets fixed in one week or one day. But we just keep staying at it,” Cousins said. “I think we’re heading in the right direction and that’s encouraging.”

He was speaking about the Redskins as a whole, but he could have been referring solely to himself.

By going 22 of 28 for 319 yards against Buffalo, Cousins became the first quarterback in franchise history with six 300-yard passing games in a season. He also finished the home schedule with a 74.7 completion percentage, the highest for any QB in NFL history with at least 100 pass attempts in a season.

And to think: Cousins was the backup to Robert Griffin III entering training camp; only toward the end of the preseason did Gruden change his starting QB.

“A lot of people thought he wasn’t going to be a good starting quarterback or think he wasn’t going to be able to get the job done,” said receiver DeSean Jackson, who had six catches for 153 yards, including a 77-yard TD on Sunday.

Now comes the biggest game of Cousins’ career, against Jackson’s former team.

When the Redskins hosted the Eagles back in early October, Cousins capped a 90-yard drive with a go-ahead, 4-yard TD toss to Pierre Garcon with 26 seconds left for a 23-20 Washington victory.

If the Redskins can get the same result, a team that won seven games combined the previous two seasons will be headed somewhere very few thought possible when this season began.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and we’ve been finishing really well these last few games of the season,” running back Alfred Morris said. “Hopefully, we can keep it up, get into the playoffs and make some noise.”

Titans QB Mariota to miss 1 game, be re-evaluated for finale

Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota has a sprained MCL in his right knee that will keep the rookie out of Sunday’s home finale with Houston.

Interim coach Mike Mularkey said that Mariota will be re-evaluated after that game and wants to play the season finale at Indianapolis on Jan. 3.

Mularkey said Mariota has not been ruled out of the season finale. The coach said Mariota’s injury is less serious than the sprained left knee that kept the quarterback out of two games earlier this season and the rookie wants to play.

“Certainly if there’s any issues, if we have any concerns as we did (Sunday), we would not play him,” Mularkey said. “If there’s any way he was going to not be capable of playing, no way.”

Mariota was hurt when sacked for the third time at 10:32 of the second quarter in a 33-16 loss at New England. Mularkey said the rookie wanted to return against the Patriots, but the Titans chose to be cautious and protect Mariota.

Zach Mettenberger, 0-8 as a starter, will start against Houston (7-7). This will be his fourth start against the Texans who sacked Mettenberger seven times Nov. 1, prompting ownership to fire Ken Whisenhunt two days later.

Texans quarterback situation uncertain because of injuries

HOUSTON (AP) – Brandon Weeden could start for the Houston Texans on Sunday against Tennessee as they try to clinch the AFC South title.

Houston is down to Weeden, the third-string quarterback, because T.J. Yates suffered a season-ending torn ACL on Sunday and Brian Hoyer remains in the concussion protocol.

Hoyer suffered his second concussion in less than a month on Dec. 13 and must be cleared by an independent neurologist before he can return.

Weeden, who was signed by the Texans on Nov. 19, took over on Sunday after Yates was injured helped Houston to its first win in Indianapolis, making him the fourth quarterback to get a victory for the Texans this season. The Texans need a win over the Titans and a loss by the Colts at Miami on Sunday to win the division.

Suspended Jaguars receiver Justin Blackmon charged with DUI

Suspended Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Justin Blackmon has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Oklahoma.

Online court records show the misdemeanor was filed against the 25-year-old Blackmon in Carter County. Blackmon was released after posting an $850 bond.

Court records show he was arrested Saturday while driving a 2015 Jeep Wrangler.

Assistant District Attorney Jack Coppedge declined to release additional details. Blackmon’s defense attorney and his agent didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

Last year, Blackmon pleaded no contest to misdemeanor marijuana possession. Authorities say police in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond stopped Blackmon in July 2014 for a minor traffic violation and discovered three grams of marijuana inside his car.

Blackmon was suspended indefinitely in 2013 for repeated violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.