Tag: Hall of Fame Game

5 bets for the Raiders-Jaguars Hall of Fame game, because why else are you going to watch?

Yes, we know it’s the preseason. No, you can’t talk us out of this.

Ok, listen.

It’s been a very long offseason in the NFL. The draft feels like a distant memory and free agency may as well have taken place decades ago. But finally, FINALLY, we get real, live NFL football on Thursday night.

And while that anticipation will almost certainly not be met with thrilling action, watching toe meet leather on television for the first time all year is worth celebrating. Certainly it’s worth betting on.

We are not here to judge. We are not here to tell you to save your bankroll for Week 1. We know, in our hearts, if you are reading this, you’ve already committed to putting down some cash on Thursday’s action. You will find no shame here for we are with you. This is a safe place.

So let’s do what we’ve waited months on. Let’s bet on a (preseason) NFL game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Las Vegas Raiders.

Here are the five bets we’ve got our eyes on.

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How to watch and stream Jags vs. Raiders in 2022 Hall of Fame Game

Here is all the info needed to catch the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday between the Jags and Raiders… And yes we know Lawrence isn’t playing.

The NFL season will start on Thursday as it typically does through the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. To the surprise of many, the Jacksonville Jaguars received the opportunity to compete in the annual game and will take on the Las Vegas Raiders in the process.

The Jags will be competing in the annual game for the first time since their inaugural season when they took on the Carolina Panthers, another new entrant into the NFL, in 1995. As for the Raiders, it will mark their first time competing in the game.

Both teams will take the field with new head coaches as Doug Pederson was hired by the Jags in February and Josh McDaniels was hired by the Raiders in January. Additionally, the Hall of Fame Game will mark the second time both have taken the field as head coaches, with Pederson previously leading the Philadelphia Eagles and McDaniels previously leading the Denver Broncos.

As for both franchises, these two teams will be coming off two completely different 2021 seasons as the Jags had the worst record in the league (3-14), while the Raiders (10-7) reached the postseason. That said, Thursday’s game especially should give a young team like the Jags a good evaluation period.

Pederson already said that he wants to give his young players a chance to show what they can do, so that could be a sign that many of the starters will be very limited, or won’t play at all. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne are two players who Pederson has already said will sit on Thursday, so their 2022 preseason debuts will likely happen next week.

With Lawrence out, as well as No. 2 quarterback C.J. Beathard (groin injury),  Jake Luton has been named the starting quarterback for the Jags. Luton, a former sixth-round selection, is entering his third season in the NFL. He was drafted by the Jags in 2020 out of Oregon State, but spent some time with the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins in 2021 before returning on a reserve/future contract in February.

As for the rest of the team, the players who Jags fans may be the most interested to see are the members of their rookie class. With the team earning the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft, they selected outside linebacker Travon Walker from Georgia. While he’s set to be a starter, it wouldn’t be surprising if he received some snaps on Thursday alongside other early-round selections like linebacker Chad Muma and center Luke Fortner.

Then when it comes to the Jags’ late-round additions like running back Snoop Conner and cornerbacks Montaric Brown and Gregory Junior, they are even more certain to get some time on the field.

Aside from the action on the field, Jags fans will also be tuning in to watch the first-ever player drafted by the franchise, Tony Boselli, receive his induction into the Hall of Fame. After seven consecutive years of being a semifinalist, he was able to finally earn his rightful spot into the league’s most exclusive group this offseason, and now fans will get to see him make history as the first Jaguar enshrined in Canton.

Here is all the information needed to catch Thursday’s game on NBC:

Event Information

2022 Hall of Fame Game

Streaming

FuboTV (try it free)

Television

NBC and Peacock

Extras

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August Sports Betting Calendar: NFL Preseason, US Open and WNBA Playoffs

Novak Djokovic goes for a second straight Grand Slam title. And football is back!

The wait is over for those starved of football. The August sports betting calendar is highlighted by the return of the NFL in the form of preseason play, though I personally wouldn’t wager on those wholly unpredictable games.

Besides, there’s so much more going on in August.

Novak Djokovic will go for a second straight Grand Slam title when the US Open gets underway near the end of the month. WNBA teams jockey for playoff position until the start of the playoffs in mid-August. And all three of the FedEx Cup Playoffs will determine a winner on the PGA Tour.

Here’s a look at all of that and more going on.

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NBC Sports announces commentary team for 2022 Hall of Fame Game between Jags, Raiders

Cris Collinsworth (analyst) and Mike Tirico (play-by-play) will call the HOF Game this August as the Jags and Raiders take the field. Melissa Stark will be reporting from the sidelines.

The announcement team for the 2022 Hall of Fame Game between Jacksonville and Las Vegas is set and it will be Cris Collinsworth (analyst) and Mike Tirico (play-by-play) in the booth calling all the action. Meanwhile, Melissa Stark, who is NBC Sports’ newest member, will be the one handling reporting duties from the sidelines.

This team is one that will be a bit different from what fans are used to in the past as Collinsworth normally was paired up with Al Michaels, who will now be in the booth for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football. Meanwhile, Stark will be taking over for former sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.

Collinsworth will be entering his 14th season in the NBC Sunday Night Football booth, while Tirico will be calling primetime NFL games for his 17th consecutive season. As for Stark, she brings a good amount of experience to the table, too, and was a sideline reporter for ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000-02.

As many are aware, appearances by the Jags on NBC have been rare and it’s been 14 seasons since they appeared on Sunday Night Football. With the Hall of Fame Game taking place on a Thursday (Aug. 4), that drought hasn’t ended yet, but fans are still more than excited for the opportunity to see the Jags back on NBC.

The Jags will be playing in their second Hall of Fame game since entering the league. They also participated in the Hall of Fame game of 1995 against the Carolina Panthers. However, this one will mean a little more as the team will have its first player ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in former tackle Tony Boselli.

Jags, Raiders to play in 2022 Hall of Fame Game

Tony Boselli won’t be going to Canton alone this season. The 2022 Jags are also coming with him.

It’s been a busy day in terms of the Jacksonville Jaguars 2022 schedule, who started it off by announcing they were set to return to Wembley Stadium this regular season. However, just hours later, they also revealed that they will be one of the two teams kicking off the 103rd NFL season and will be participating in the 2022 Hall of Fame Game with the Las Vegas Raiders.

The game, which will mark the second Hall of Fame Game in Jags history, will take place at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 4. It will mark the team’s return to the game after they played their first-ever in Canton back in 1995 as the Jags took on the Carolina Panthers for what was considered an inaugural game. The Panthers ended up winning it by a score of 20-14.

The game will take place during the enshrinement week for the 2022 Hall-of-Fame class, which was announced on Feb. 10. The class provided a historic moment in Jags history as Tony Boselli was a part of it, making him the first Jaguar to be enshrined. The group included former Raiders Richard Seymour and Cliff Branch, too.

The game will take place at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, which is adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame building. Several Jags fans were already excited about going to support Boselli, but they now can make an additional stop to check out new coach Doug Pederson, quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and others while they’re up north.

In this week’s episode of “Touchdown Jaguars!”we looked at the top needs for the Jags heading into the NFL Combine. Progressing forward, we will continue to put out weekly episodes, giving Jags Wire readers a new go-to podcast, which will discuss the latest in news, rumors, and more. To stay up to date, subscribe via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and also feel free to rate and comment.

Raiders will face Jaguars in the 2022 Hall of Fame game

Raiders and Jaguars will be the first teams to take the field for the 2022 season in the Hall of Fame game

Each season two NFL teams get an early start. This season the Raiders are one of them. They will take the field for the Hall of Fame game on August 4th against the Jaguars as the first NFL football game played ahead of the 2022 season.

Who: Raiders vs Jaguars
What: Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
Where: Tom Benson Stadium, Canton OH
When: Thursday, August 4, 8 pm ET (5 pm Pacific)

As it happens, Raiders’ new head coach Josh McDaniels is a native of Canton Ohio, which should make the game all the more special for him.

Two days later, on that same field, Raiders greats Cliff Branch and Richard Seymour will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As will Jaguars great Tony Boselli.

Branch, Seymour and the rest of the class of 2022 will be honored at halftime. Though Branch will be honored posthumously as he passed away in 2019.

Others to be inducted include LeRoy Butler, Art McNally, Sam Mills, Dick Vermeil, and Bryant Young.

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Kelvin Joseph, Nahshon Wright shine as young CBs stepped up in HOF game

The Cowboys seem to be taking a big risk with a young and inexperienced DB group, but the unit flourished in their first preseason game. Could more be on tap in short order? | From @Zeke_Barrera

The preseason version of a team often bears little resemblance to the one they field during the regular season, but the Dallas Cowboys foreshadowed what their secondary could be during the 2021 Hall of Fame Game. Dallas must replace 900 defensive snaps from last year between the offseason departures of Chidobe Awuzie, Daryl Worley, and Rashard Robinson, and will seemingly attempt to do so with mostly recent draft picks and low-budget veterans. For the first preseason game at least, the strategy looked like it could work.

It obviously wasn’t the sharpest of football being played, but the Cowboys defense still only allowed 18 Pittsburgh completions for 175 passing yards and a single touchdown over the entire game. It was the play of their most recently drafted cornerbacks, Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright, that was most encouraging. The 2021 second and third rounders showed they can hold their own on the outside, spending a good chunk of the game as the Cowboys’ primary corners. There’s still a long way to go between now and the regular season, but the blueprint of what Dallas is attempting to build in their secondary was on full display.

Joseph seemed to have a smooth, quiet game that matched the recent and quick strides he’s made in training camp. There’s a real chance he pairs with Trevon Diggs sooner rather than later atop the team’s CB depth chart. The rookie gave up just two short receptions of seven and six yards, while immediately bringing down the pass catcher on each.

Wright’s night was more eventful, as he was the more frequently targeted corner by the Steelers passing attack. Wright did allow a 45-yard completion to WR Chase Claypool, but ran well with him down the sideline until a late push off created the separation for Claypool to make the catch.

He was again targeted on a deep shot later in the third quarter, but this time Wright forced the incompletion, playing aggressive, sticky coverage. He followed that up with an open-field tackle of WR Ray-Ray McCloud to force Pittsburgh off the field on the next play, capping off an impressive series for the DB in his first professional action.

In fact, Wright had the Cowboys’ defense best tackling grade on the evening for Pro Football Focus, a 79.0.

If Wright can similarly contribute like that at times during the regular season, he’d be a big boost to the Cowboys secondary.

However, Joseph and Wright weren’t the only fresh faces making plays for the new-look Dallas secondary. Also having a solid game was 2020 fourth rounder Reggie Robinson recorded four total tackles and forced a fumble that nearly led to turnover in the third quarter.

These kinds of plays on the ball have been few and far between for the Cowboys in recent years, yet seemed almost routine in their preseason opener. It’s still way too early to draw any meaningful conclusions about how this defense will fare under Dan Quinn, but it’s at least encouraging sign for so many young players immediately step in and make contributions, even if only against preseason competition.

Given the premium placed on defending the pass, and the atypical approach Dallas has taken toward building their secondary, it’s hard to feel very confident about the Cowboys’ DB group, but it at least seemed like pieces to the puzzle were in place against Pittsburgh. The Cowboys have collected a small stable of young and hungry cornerbacks over the past two seasons, spending five draft picks (three in the Top 100) on the position since 2020.

Sprinkling in those players alongside veterans like Jourdan Lewis, Anthony Brown, Damontae Kazee, as well as FS lotto ticket Malik Hooker, might be enough to help keep the defense afloat this year, while also providing the foundation and valuable experience for the Dallas secondary of the future. The development of players like Joseph, Wright and whoever else emerges over the course of the season is crucial for the Cowboys, who must find answers for a secondary full of question marks. For one night at least, it seemed like everything could come together.

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Cowboys QBs evenly mediocre; McCarthy stresses ‘good things that we can learn from’

Dak Prescott’s trio of backups had similarly flat stat lines Thursday night, as Mike MCarthy looks to build tape for the team to study.

Cowboys fans knew they wouldn’t be seeing Dak Prescott make his return to real game action on Thursday night in Canton. But if they were hoping to come away from the Hall of Fame Game with a better sense of who Prescott’s primary backup would be for the 2021 season, a lackluster performance from all three passers provided no real clarity.

Garrett Gilbert, Cooper Rush, and Ben DiNucci came out of the 16-3 loss with strikingly similar stat lines, with no one doing much to distance himself from the competition.

One year ago, Gilbert was in Cleveland, gunning for a spot on the Browns’ roster. He was cut before the season opener and signed by the Cowboys in October after Prescott’s ankle injury. He took the first offensive snaps for Dallas, finishing the evening 9-of-13 and 104 passing yards.

“I thought Gilbert did a really good job,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told reporters afterward. “I’m sure there’s a decision or two that we’ll look at that he may want back. But I thought he was very productive in his work.”

For Gilbert, who started Week 9’s meeting with the Steelers last season (and nearly engineered a Cowboys upset win), it was a chance to knock off the rust… and get the rust knocked off of him.

“Fun to go get hit every once in a while. It’s been a while,” the 30-year-old said, “so it’s nice to get knocked down and be able get back up again. I enjoyed that.”

He enjoyed it so much, he took two sacks in his limited action, while driving the offense to its only points, a short field goal by Hunter Niswander.

“We moved the ball really well,” Gilbert commented, “but then got down to the red zone and kind of got stalled out a couple times. Got to do a better job on third down, situationally, in order to finish off those drives and get ourselves some points.”

McCarthy wasn’t as concerned about the final score as he was with getting a read on several players and personnel packages. But the team’s timeshare approach to the quarterback position was- by his own admission- as much about not wearing out any arms before Saturday’s joint practice with the Rams.

“This is a three-day window for us,” McCarthy said. “We’ve got a lot of work; we had tonight’s game, and then we flip around Saturday and we’ve got the Rams for intersquad practice. So the way we played our players was really with both the game tonight and the practice Saturday in mind. I’m very hopeful and confident that’ll we’ll come out of both of these opportunities with a lot of great tape and a lot of things we can build off of.”

In relief of Gilbert, Rush went 8-of-13 and recorded 70 passing yards.

“Cooper did a nice job,” McCarthy noted. “Took a couple hits, threw in the face of a couple hits. Obviously, we had plenty of pressure to deal with tonight, so that’s great work for the quarterbacks. These are a lot of good situations that we had tonight.”

McCarthy has emphasized situational football thus far in training camp, so putting his players in a variety of different scenarios all goes toward building more tape that the team and coaching staff can study moving forward.

“Definitely there’s going to be a lot to correct, but these are good things that we can learn from and build,” the coach expained. “I think the fact that we have tonight and then Saturday work against the Rams back-to-back? I think come this time Monday, we’re going to feel pretty good about where we are.”

Cowboys fans may not have felt quite so good about DiNucci’s second-half outing. He finished 7-of-17 and 89 passing yards with one interception.

“I think the [play] that sticks out is the turnover; it’s going to be highlighted,” the 2020 seventh-round pick said. “I got hit when I was throwing and the ball sailed a little bit. That’s on me; that’s easily correctable. It’s not like I made the wrong read. Just got to bring the ball down a little bit.”

DiNucci seemed to go to his sidearm slinging/throwing motion frequently throughout the night, whether it was truly necessary or not. It’s hard to imagine coaches won’t spend some time with him on his mechanics in the coming days and weeks; even McCarthy struggled to find the right word when reviewing his project’s performance.

“I thought DiNucci made some throws off his back foot that were, you know… unique.”

On the plus side, the 24-year-old out of James Madison added 34 ground yards to his stat sheet on just two scrambles. He was the team’s second-leading rusher for the game.

“I kind of pride myself on that,” he explained. “In today’s day and age, you need to be able to be athletic to play quarterback for when the pocket breaks down, or some of those nakeds or designed runs are called. Being able to use my feet, be smart about it, get as many yards as I can and get down, that gets me in a groove as well. Being able to use my legs, I think, keeps the defense honest. It’s all positives for me.”

But whether it’s enough to push him up the depth chart remains to be seen. With the club taking a slow and methodical approach with working Prescott back into live action, DiNucci, Rush, and Gilbert should all gets reps against the Rams on Saturday and then again August 13th when the Cowboys travel to Arizona.

Each of them is likely living by the mindset Gilbert explained to the media after Thursday’s opening exhibition:

“My job remains the same: I’m going to go out there every day and be the best quarterback I can be for this football team and let the chips fall where they may.”

After the team’s first game action in 214 days, it’s impossible to tell where those chips will land for any of the Cowboys’ backups.

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Cowboys avoid injuries, open preseason with 16-3 loss to Steelers

The Cowboys lost their first preseason game of the year, 16-3, but avoided the biggest concern while starting to answer some other pressing questions. | From @CDBurnett7

The Dallas Cowboys took the field on Thursday for the first time since their 2020 campaign ended in January. The opponent? The rival Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. While missing a multitude of starters, Dallas had plenty of other players looking to impress the coaching staff in their 2021 debuts.

The Cowboys, playing without many starters, played their two most veteran QBs in the first half and their 2020 seventh-round rookie in the second half. Turning the ball over three times (one interception, two of four fumbles lost), they weren’t able to mount much of an offense. When they did, their backup kicker missed two field goals and although they had several strong defensive performances, lost the exhibition opener 16-3.

The bright side? Dallas avoided suffering any major injuries, only having one scare to a reserve offensive lineman who returned on the next series. On a night of celebration for three former members of the organization, the current players were unable to secure a win in a game that will soon be forgotten by most.

Punter Hunter Niswander, stepping in for the injured Greg Zuerlein, took the role of placekicker and started the exhibition season with the opening kickoff. After giving up a couple first downs, first-round rookie linebacker Micah Parsons made his introduction, recovering a fumble by Steelers QB Mason Rudolph. Parsons would only see the first two drives but made a memorable impression with three tackles in the next seven snaps to go alongside the fumble recovery.

Quarterback Garrett Gilbert took the field after the takeaway and was able to move the ball down the field, down to the Pittsburgh four-yard line where Niswander finished the drive with a 29-yard field goal for the first score of the game. Gilbert would complete 9 of 13 passes on the day for 104 yards. He was sacked twice and didn’t show the greatest awareness in the pocket.

Things would go downhill for Niswander and the Cowboys after their score. He would miss his second attempt, this one from 52 yards at the end of the first half and Dallas entered the locker room up 3-0. In between, veteran Cooper Rush played and didn’t fare much better than Gilbert. Rush went 8 for 13 for 70 yards in his preseason debut.

With quarterback Ben Dinucci taking over in the second half, the Cowboys had a three-and-out, and the Steelers took no time marching down the field and scoring a touchdown on a run by Kalen Ballage to take the lead that Pittsburgh wouldn’t let up till the end, adding another field goal and a touchdown to win the game 16-3.

DiNucci, playing behind third and fourth stringers, ended up going 7 for 17 for 89 yards and an interception. Both he and Gilbert had fumbles on strip sacks, but Dallas recovered both.

Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle had an impressive game, totaling 43 yards on 5.4 yards per carry. Wide receiver Malik Turner had a fumble on a 20-yard catch but recovered well and finished the game with a team-leading four catches for 47 yards.

With plenty of rookies flashing success in their debut, Dallas looks towards their next preseason game against the Cardinals on August 13.

Hall of Fame Game rewind: A look back at Tom Brady’s NFL debut in 2000

Tom Brady’s NFL debut came in the 2000 Hall of Fame Game. Brady went on to have a pretty decent career!

In 2000, the New England Patriots were rolling with a new head coach in Bill Belichick, and a roster that Belichick and his staff were looking to overturn pretty severely. 1999, the last year of the Pete Carroll era, left the team with some underperforming veterans who were bleeding the salary cap, so Belichick looked to remake the team in an image that made him comfortable. One factor, though it was a negligible one early on, was the team’s sixth-round pick in 2000 — a quarterback from Michigan by the name of Tom Brady.

Belichick’s first look at his new team in a competitive situation came in the 2000 Hall of Fame game on July 31, at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio, against the San Francisco 49ers.

The day before the game, Brady spoke with Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe about his first NFL opportunity, backing up starter Drew Bledsoe. Michael Bishop — s seventh-round pick in 1999 — was also in the quarterback rotation, and as a similarly low draft pick, Brady had his work cut out for him.

“I know that Drew is likely going to start the game, and he’s going to go out there and do well,” Brady said. “Then, Mike is going to go in and do well, and then, I am going to follow that up and play as well as I possibly can.”

Brady’s head was still spinning a bit with the rigors of the NFL, but he knew what he had to do.

“You’ve got to go out there and get the repetitions, and learn from your mistakes, and each day, get better — or else. Coach always says you get better, or you get worse, and hopefully as a quarterback, you get better every day.

“I’d like to [go out there tomorrow], make the good reads, to always be going to the right place with the ball. You know, I don’t care if we run the ball 15 times in a row, as long as we score touchdowns, that’s fine with me. The name of the game is winning, and when you are out there as a quarterback, you want your team to score points.”

The Patriots scored 20 points in their shutout of Steve Mariucci’s team. Brady didn’t see action until the fourth quarter, completing three of four passes for 28 yards in mop-up duty. But hey, it was a start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7purVsaWLY

Brady appeared in just one game in his rookie regular season, completing one of three passes for six yards. It wasn’t until 2001, when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis just about killed Bledsoe on a tackle near the sideline, that Brady got his real starting shot. That season ended with the Patriots beating the Rams in a major upset in Super Bowl XXXVI, and last we heard, Brady went on to do a few good things in a pretty decent career.

And it all started at the Hall of Fame Game. Who knows which players may emerge from 2021’s version between the Steelers and Cowboys?