Frerotte steers Redskins home

Gus Frerotte threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns and Henry Ellard caught eight passes to lift the Washington Redskins to their fifth straight win, 27-22 over the New England Patriots in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Frerotte drew praise from the Skins head coach, Norv Turner. "He's matured. You get a chance to play and you're going to get better. He's had great presence in the pocket for a long time."

Mike Tomczak's 32-yard touchdown pass to Kordell Stewart snapped a third- quarter tie and Jerome Bettis eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the fifth straight game in the Pittsburgh Steelers' 20-10 home victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

In Indianapolis, Marshall Faulk and line-backer Jeff Herrod scored touchdowns two minutes apart in the second half to take the Colts back to the top of the AFC East table with a 26-21 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

Miami's Terrell Buckley snuffed a last-gasp drive by returning an interception 91 yards for a touchdown with 47 seconds remaining to defeat the Buffalo Bills, 21-7.

The Dolphins had seven sacks and four turnovers despite starting four rookies on defence in Buffalo. Karim Abdul-Jabbar and Irving Spikes scored on short touchdown runs for Miami, which snapped an eight-game losing streak without Dan Marino as their starting quarterback. Marino's substitute, Craig Erickson, threw 192 yards.

In Jacksonville, Nick Lowery joined the record books on a day his woeful New York Jets lost an 11-point lead and fell to no wins from seven games after a 21-17 loss to the Jaguars. Lowery's 20-yard field goal in the fourth quarter was the 374th in his career, moving him past Jan Stenerud as the NFL's all-time leader.

Emmitt Smith ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns, including the 100th rushing TD of his career, as the Dallas Cowboys welcomed back their wide- receiver Michael Irvin with a 17-3 home victory over the Arizona Cardinals. Irvin, back after missing five games for violating the NFL's drug-abuse policy, caught five passes for 51 yards.