Steelers’ Kenny Pickett debuts with lengthy TD drive – newsdubai
The NFL preseason is formally underway, and Week 1 of the 2022 exhibition season has been fairly eventful up up to now. Atlanta Falcons rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder threw a game-winning landing towards the Detroit Lions with below two minutes left, Jordan Love and Trey Lance traded lengthy touchdowns within the Bay and Cincinnati Bengals star kicker Evan McPherson went 3 of three on his area objectives, together with two from at the very least 56 yards out.
There have been additionally a couple of accidents, essentially the most notable being New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson — who tore his meniscus. Nonetheless, he’s anticipated to be OK and will not miss any time within the common season.
This Saturday now we have a complete of eight video games to look at, beginning with the Carolina Panthers vs. Washington Commanders and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs vs. Chicago Bears at 1:00 p.m. ET, ending with a matchup for LA between the Tremendous Bowl champion Rams and Chargers.
Beneath, we’ll observe all of the must-see highlights from Saturday’s motion. Prepare for a full day of soccer.
Time schedule
Thursday
Giants 23, Patriots 21 (Takeaways)
Ravens 23, Titans 10 (Recap)
Friday
Falcons 27, Lions 23 (Recap)
Browns 24, Jaguars 13 (Recap)
Cardinals 36, Bengals 23 (Recap)
Jets 24, Eagles 21 (Takeaways)
49ers 28, Packers 21 (Recap)
Saturday
Bears 19, Chiefs 14 (Recap)
Panthers 23, Commanders 21 (Recap)
Payments 27, Colts 24 (Recap)
Steelers 32, Seahawks 25 (Recap)
Buccaneers 24, Dolphins 23 (4th Quarter – Gametracker)
Texans 10, Saints 10 (third Quarter – Gametracker)
Broncos 14, Cowboys 0 (2nd Quarter – Gametracker)
Chargers 7, Rams 0 (1st Quarter – Gametracker)
Sunday
Vikings at Raiders, 4:25 PM ET (Gametracker)
Pickett walks away!
Two days, two rookie quarterbacks with game-winning landing passes. On Friday, it was Desmond Ridder who received it executed towards the Lions with lower than two minutes remaining. Pickett then beat Ridder on Saturday and related with Tyler Vaughns, who stepped out of a deal with after which dove for the entrance left pylon with simply three seconds to play.
It was a memorable debut for the first-round choose, who went 13-for-15 passing for 95 yards and a pair of scores. Mitchell Trubisky nonetheless has the within observe to be the Steelers’ Week 1 starter, however Pittsburgh must be happy with its prime draft choose in his NFL debut.
Drew Lock impresses
Geno Smith accounted for one landing within the first half, whereas Lock has thrown for 2 touchdowns in simply over 1 / 4 of an hour. He has accomplished eight of his first 11 throws for 102 yards and scores to Dareke Younger and DeeJay Dallas.
Pittsburgh was wanting to welcome its first-round quarterback Kenny Pickett on Saturday, assembly him thunderous applause when he took the sphere to start the second half on offense for the Steelers. Pickett rewarded the gang with a powerful 75-yard landing drive, finishing all 5 of his passes for 33 yards and a landing to Jaylen Warren. He additionally accomplished a go to Connor Heyward for the two-point conversion.
Whereas this will likely have been within the second half of a preseason sport, you may’t ask for far more from Pickett, who appeared fairly sharp out of the gate.
Tapping legs!
Why use your arms to pressure a turnover when you should utilize your legs? That’s precisely what Elijah Campbell did within the second quarter towards the Buccaneers. The Dolphins scored a landing on the subsequent play.
Dolphins rookie throws TD
With Tua Tagovailoa among the many starters sitting out, seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson began the sport below middle and has taken full benefit of his alternative. He began the sport finishing 10 of his first 12 passes, the spotlight being a 22-yard strike to Lynn Bowden Jr. The Dolphins have allegedly held commerce talks about Bowden and Preston Williams, however the former confirmed Miami what he may do on that play.
Geno Smith is presently forward of Drew Lock within the race for the Seahawks’ beginning quarterback job, and the veteran has been stable by way of one half towards the Steelers within the preseason opener. He completed the primary two quarters 10-for-15 passing for 101 yards and added a 2-yard landing run to tug Seattle inside a rating earlier than halftime.
George Pickens hauls in a toe-slicing landing
That George Picken’s hype prepare goes supersonic. After turning heads throughout coaching camp, the Steelers’ second-round choose is now displaying your entire NFL what he brings to the desk.
In Pittsburgh’s preseason opener towards Seattle, the rookie wideout hauled in a standout landing catch from Mason Rudolph. On a third-and-13 try from Seattle’s 26-yard line, Rudolph threw a go towards the again proper pylon in the long run zone. Pickens was not solely in a position to get a step on his defender, however was additionally in a position to hold each toes in bounds after making the catch.
Ho-hum, simply one other budding star receiver popping out of Pittsburgh.
‘Punt God’ boots 82 yards
They don’t name him “Punt God” for nothing. Within the closing minute of the primary half of the Payments and Colts’ preseason opener, rookie kicker Matt Araiza launched a thunderous 82-yard punt. It bounced deep into Indy territory earlier than going into the tip zone for a touchback. Araiza’s punt had an unofficial hold time of 4.23 seconds, in accordance with Athletics.
The San Diego State product made a reputation for himself in faculty for punts like this, and it’s what led to him being a sixth-round choose by Buffalo within the 2022 NFL Draft. If he can proceed to have factors like this and pressure groups to journey the size of the sphere towards a protection that ranked No. 1 in DVOA within the NFL final 12 months, Buffalo will likely be much more harmful than first thought.
Turnover Occasion in Buffalo
The Buffalo Payments and Indianapolis Colts are the present betting favorites to make it out of their respective divisions and are among the many extra well-liked bets to win the AFC in 2022. That mentioned, they didn’t precisely appear to be bets within the first half of their preseason opener. This exhibition shortly was a turnover social gathering. Through the first two quarters, there have been a complete of six turnovers, which features a back-and-four within the second quarter.
After stopping a fourth-and-4 try by the Colts, quarterback Case Keenum was stripped close to midfield. Simply six performs later, Indy signal-caller Nick Foles was stripped of Buffalo’s Terrel Bernard, who recovered the unfastened ball and returned it 69 yards for the landing.
On the very subsequent drive after that rating, Foles’ throw was intercepted. One play later, the turnover prepare continued to chug alongside as Keenum was picked off within the crimson zone.
Sam Howell’s eye-catching late rally
Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke didn’t do a lot at quarterback for the Commanders, however their third QB in rookie Sam Howell impressed. It took him simply 5 passes to grow to be Washington’s main passer vs. his hometown Panthers, after which he recorded this spectacular 17-yard speeding landing.
Don’t be bowled over by Howell’s legs. He ran for 11 scores for the Tar Heels final 12 months.
After Carolina went three-and-out on the subsequent possession, Howell once more took the sphere — trying to at the very least maintain the sport midway by way of the fourth quarter. Råget led a 13-play, 67-yard drive that was capped by his second speeding landing of the sport. Howell then hit Alex Erickson for the two-point conversion to take the lead and the followers at FedEx Subject went wild.
Siemian splash performs
Justin Fields’ new mentor is main a comeback in Chicago. Once they had been down 14-0, the Bears scored 16 unanswered due to backup quarterback Trevor Siemian. Chicago isn’t appearing like it is a preseason sport when the offense went on fourth-and-2 and Siemian discovered a streaking Dante Pettis down the sphere.
Three performs later, Siemian hit Dazz Newsome on a pleasant throw within the nook of the tip zone to tug inside one level of the Chiefs.
Security Justin Reid kicks XP for Chiefs
Harrison Butker isn’t the one good kicker on the Chiefs’ roster, as certainly one of their safeties additionally has a gifted leg. Reid kicked one 65-yard area aim in coaching camp final week, and received a shot to kick an additional level in Week 1 of the preseason. It was good.
Rookie RB Brian Robinson shines for Commanders
It appears to be like just like the Alabama rookie is able to take some touches away from Antonio Gibson in 2022. Robinson rushed for 26 yards on his first six carries and in addition caught two passes for 15 yards early. Robinson additionally made some Commander historical past when he scored the primary landing of the brand new period at Washington.
Tajae Sharpe a candidate for the ‘catch of the season’
Sharpe is combating for taking part in time among the many Bears’ huge receivers, and this catch will definitely assist his trigger. He used athleticism, focus and sideline consciousness to set this one off. Sharpe was a brand new member of the Bears and spent final 12 months with the Falcons. He caught 25 passes for 230 yards in 15 video games performed.
Sam Darnold with spectacular TD throw
The Panthers are over the Commanders early, and Antonio Gibson helped his opponent’s trigger by fumbling at his personal 28-yard line. Darnold changed Baker Mayfield at quarterback for Carolina’s second sequence, and three performs into the drive he related with Rashard Higgins for an eight-yard landing.
It is a fairly spectacular throw as Darnold had Montez Sweat in his face but completely led his wideout whereas throwing off his again foot.
The NFL world is a bit of nervous concerning the second-year Fields, as he has been accused of discovering success behind a questionable offensive line and with a large receiving corps not many are excessive on. Nonetheless, Fields nonetheless has Mooney, who’s coming off a profession marketing campaign by which he caught 81 passes for 1,055 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Try this throw and catch that went 26 yards:
The Chiefs waste no time scoring the primary Saturday TD
Okay, that’s sufficient. We will take Patrick Mahomes out of the sport. He’s nonetheless good at soccer. The previous NFL MVP led an 11-play, 72-yard drive that included a pair of highlight-reel performs, capped by a five-yard landing go to Blake Bell.
Watson is awaiting a possible enhance within the penalty from the NFL – which is predicted to extend his six-game suspension to one thing extra vital – however he took the sphere for the Browns’ first preseason sport of the brand new 12 months towards the Jaguars. Watson for positive appeared like somebody enjoying their first sport in 568 daysas he completed with simply seven passing yards on 1 of 5 passing.
In constructive information for the Browns, backup QB Joshua Dobbs appeared good, finishing 10 of 13 passes for 108 yards and a landing.
From Friday: Ridder’s game-winning go
The Lions-Falcons preseason sport had no purpose to be this entertaining. The brand new QB in ATL, Marcus Mariota, appeared nice, as did rookie Desmond Ridder. On fourth-and-9 down by three factors with below two minutes left, Knight discovered Jared Bernhardt for the game-winning rating.
Not solely was this play good to look at from a rookie quarterback, however the participant on the receiving finish of the landing deserves some credit score as properly. Bernhardt is a former Maryland lacrosse star and the winner of the 2021 Tewaaraton Award – given to the perfect participant in faculty lacrosse. Not solely was Bernhardt a scrappy legend at an elite faculty, however he then transferred to Ferris State to play soccer and led this system to an undefeated file and their first Division II nationwide championship at quarterback. Now he has caught a game-winning landing within the NFL. What a narrative.