Last time this season for fans in the stands in Denver

The Denver Broncos rewarded their limited Sunday turnout with a gritty victory over the red-hot Miami Dolphins.

The 20-13 win between the two NFL American Conference teams came right at the right time, for the franchise will not be allowing any fans in the stands for its remaining home games. So its fourth triumph in 10 starts cooled off Miami’s 5-game win streak, its first loss since Oct. 4, and it fell a game behind the Division East-leading Buffalo Bills, with the third place perennial division champion New England Patriots just hanging on after the 27-20 defeat at the Houston Texans.

And woe remains woe for the division’s winless last place New York Jets after they made a good, close game of it before falling, 34-28, at the Los Angeles Chargers.

As for the Broncos, they turned in a good game against a good team on both sides of the ball. They rushed rookie Dolphin quarterback Tua Tagovailoa so much that he was sacked six times, passed for only 83 yards, and sent limping to the sidelines after a hard hit by Bradley Chubb in sack number six, and he was replaced by 43-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick, who had been the starting QB until head coach Brian Flores handed the job to former University of Alabama standout Tagovailoa.

But this not the youngster’s day, his only poor one so far. For Denver, quarterback Drew Lock played the entire game, completing 18-of-30 passes for 270 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

But it came down to one more defensive play for the home side in a game where the rain fell from the starting kickoff to the final whistle.

Fitzgerald had already made good on 12-of-18 throws for 117 yards and was moving the ball downfield with his team down by seven and the clock ticking away. On third and eight, he got to the Bronco 15, tossed an underthrown pass into the end zone and Denver’s alert Justin Simmons stepped in and intercepted the throw meant for DeVante Parker with 63 seconds left in regulation.

The Fins had no more timeouts and the Broncs just ran out the clock.

“I was happy as hell,” said Denver running back Alex Gordon, who rushed for a pair of touchdowns but fumbled on the way to his third score to provide the visitors (6-4) with a last chance that was spoiled by Simmons and it put his team at 4-6.

Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick, who drove Miami to a field goal after he came in, began at his own 1 and had momentum until his final play.

New England, now three games behind Buffalo and two in back of Miami, ran into a hot quarterback in Houston’s Deshaun Watson. He passed for 344 yards and accounted for three touchdowns. The Texans (3-7) built a 21-10 halftime lead that the Patriots trimmed to 27-20 on a 46-yard field goal Kaimi Fairbairn with 3 and one-half minutes left. But that’s the way the final score read.

In the dismal NFC East, the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Football Team remained in the hunt for the division title. Fading Dallas, with Andy Dalton now its fourth starting quarterback after injured Dak Prescott was lost for the season, came into Minneapolis as the underdog but played like a winner in the 31-28 triumph over a Viking team that won four of its last five after a slow start.

That put the Cowboys at 3-7 and in a three-way tie with the New York Giants and Washington, all a half-game behind the 3-6-1 Philadelphia Eagles, who were outplayed on the road by the Cleveland Browns, 22-17, behind the quarterbacking of Baker Mayfield, the rushing of Nick Chubb, and a stout defense that contained Eagles’ QB Carson Wentz.

Cleveland is now 7-3 and three games behind the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North, but right up there in the race for the wild card berths with the 7-3 Indianapolis Colts, the 7-3 Tennessee Titans, and the 7-4 Baltimore Ravens.

Washington, meanwhile, prepared for its Thursday night game in Dallas by disposing of the visiting Cincinnati Bengals, 20-9, with Cincinnati’s first-round, first pick of the college draft, Joe Burrow, finished for the season after being carted off with a knee injury. The Bengals are now 2-7 and home to the Giants Sunday.

Indianapolis, home to the NFC North-leading Green Bay Packers, rallied after allowing three touchdown passes and 28 first-half points, to hold the Pack to only a field goal in the second half and pulling this one out in overtime, 34-31, after forcing a game-changing Green Bay fumble less than a minute into the OT, and Rodrigo Blankenship won it with a 39-yard field goal with 7:10 left.

It was a mixture of defense and offense for Indy. The D came up with two three-and-outs and a fourth down stop late in the fourth quarter, followed by the forced fumble in the overtime. Its quarterback, Phillip Rivers, was 24-for-35 for 288 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in his 234th consecutive start with the Chargers and Colts. The Packers are 7-3, two games ahead of the Chicago Bears.

The unbeaten Steelers won their 10th in a row by visiting and handing the Jacksonville Jaguars a 27-3 setback to drop the Jags to 1-9 and seeking to beat out the Jets for the top pick in the college draft.

The New Orleans Saints kept on-top the NFL South at 8-2 by turning back the visiting Atlanta Falcons, 24-9, as Taysom Hill tugged the ball for a pair of touchdowns and 233 yards in his first start at quarterback as 41-year-old starter Drew Brees is sidelined at least three games with multiple rib fractures. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are home to the Los Angeles Rams in the Monday nightgame, are right behind the Saints at 7-3 while Atlanta dropped to 3-7.

The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs hold down first place at 9-1 in the AFC West, two games ahead of the Las Vegas Raiders following a tough test against second place Las Vegas that brought a 35-31 win in the Sunday night game played at the Raiders’ new stadium.