DENVER (AP) – Peyton Manning threw three touchdowns, including one to defensive tackle Mitch Unrein, to help the Denver Broncos wrap up the AFC West with a 31-23 victory Sunday over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Broncos (9-3) won their seventh straight and the Tampa Bay (6-6) loss clinched the NFC South for Atlanta, which won on Thursday. Manning threw for 242 yards. He now has 29 touchdown passes on the season, moving past Jake Plummer and John Elway for the most by a Denver quarterback in a single year. Manning threw two of the scores to Demaryius Thomas, who finished with eight catches for 99 yards. Broncos linebacker Von Miller returned an interception for his first NFL score. The Broncos held Tampa running back Doug Martin to 56 yards on 18 carries.
ARMED FORCES BOWL
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Rice is carrying a four-game winning streak into the Armed Forces Bowl, where the Owls will play Air Force.
The Dec. 29 game will be played in the completely redone stadium on the TCU campus. For its 10th game, the bowl is returning to its original location after two years at SMU.
Air Force (6-6) will play in its fourth Armed Forces Bowl, the most for any team. The Falcons, with a school-record sixth consecutive bowl season, played in three Armed Forces Bowls in a row from 2007-09, losing to California and splitting a pair of games against Houston. The Owls (6-6) won five of their last six games to get bowl eligible.
Rice is in its third bowl game since a postseason drought from 1961 to 2006.
SKI-WOMEN’S-WORLD-CUP
Vonn races to 2nd straight Lake Louise hat trick
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta (AP) – Colorado’s Lindsey Vonn completed a sweep of World Cup races at Lake Louise for the second straight year. Vonn won Sunday’s super-G in a time of 1 minute, 22.82 seconds. She also won two downhill races over the weekend for the hat trick. American teammate Julia Mancuso was second in the super-G in 1:23.25, while Anna Fenninger of Austria was third in 1:23.27. Vonn’s victory was her 14th career win at Lake Louise.
BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) – Ted Ligety of the United States easily captured his second straight World Cup giant slalom race with a flawless and fast final run at Beaver Creek. Ligety finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 25.59 seconds Sunday, holding off top rival Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 1.76 seconds. Davide Simoncelli of Italy was third.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez will start the 2013 season on the sidelines and may miss the entire first half. The team says A-Rod is preparing for surgery on his left hip, less than four years after undergoing surgery on his right hip.
UNDATED (AP) – The top of the AP college basketball rankings is a repeat of last week, with Indiana, Duke and Michigan one through three, respectively. Kentucky falls out from No. 8 after being ranked in the last 61 polls.
UNDATED (AP) – An official with the University of Idaho athletic department tells the AP that the school has hired Paul Petrino (peh-TREE’-noh) to run its football program. He’s an assistant coach at Arkansas and the younger brother of former Razorbacks coach Bobby Petrino.
MIAMI (AP) – Sports Illustrated has named LeBron James its Sportsman of the Year. The NBA’s reigning MVP helped Miami win last season’s league championship before winning gold with the U.S. team at the London Olympics.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The University of Utah will honor the legacy of Rick Majerus (mah-JEHR’-uhs) by hanging a replica of his trademark white sweater from the rafters at the basketball arena where he coached 14 seasons and regularly led the Utes to the NCAA tournament. The 64-year-old Majerus died Saturday in Los Angeles while awaiting a heart transplant.
