Tag: Score

Russell Wilson cooked against Patriots, Cam Newton left stuffed

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson cooked again Week 2 against the New England Patriots and Cam Newton, who were stuffed in the end.

The Seattle Seahawks turned quarterback Russell Wilson loose in the kitchen again and boy did he cook Week 2 against the New England Patriots.

Wilson threw for five touchdowns, completing 21 of 28 passes attempted for 288 yards and one interception on the day. He also had five carries for 39 yards and a long of 21.

Wilson hit five different receivers for his five scores on Sunday night. DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, David Moore, Freddie Swain and running back Chris Carson were all the beneficiaries of Wilson’s efforts.

On the other side of the stadium, however, it was a disappointing finish for Patriots quarterback Cam Newton, who was stuffed at the one-yard line for the loss after a back-and-forth ball game that kept things close until the end.

The Seahawks now advance to 2-0 on the season and will host the Cowboys next Sunday afternoon.

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WATCH: Russell Wilson finds Tyler Lockett for Seahawks score

Watch as Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson finds wide receiver Tyler Lockett for the team’s first touchdown against the Patriots.

The New England Patriots are in town to square off against the Seattle Seahawks under the national spotlight of “Sunday Night Football” at CenturyLink Field.

The Patriots got on the board early in the first quarter when safety Devin McCourty picked off Russell Wilson and ran it back 42 yards for the touchdown to put New England on the board.

Seattle answered, however, when Wilson found wide receiver Tyler Lockett for four yards and the Seahawks score to tie up the game at 7-7.

The Seahawks scoring drive went 13 plays for 75 yards and ate 8:12 off the clock.

Here’s look at Lockett’s TD.

The Patriots now lead the Seahawks 14-7 early in the second quarter.

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Saints are 6.5-point road favorites in Week 2 over the Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders are not favorites to open their own new home stadium against the visiting New Orleans Saints, favored by nearly a TD.

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Both the New Orleans Saints and the Las Vegas Raiders won their Week 1 debuts over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers, and now they’re on a collision course in Week 2 on Monday Night Football. All eyes will be on the Darth Vader-esque Allegiant Stadium when the Saints help the Raiders open their new home venue.

And the Saints are favored to win this one, unfortunately for the Raiders. The BetMGM Sportsbook oddsmakers have the Saints winning their first game on the road in 2020 by 6.5 points; taken with an over/under of 51.5 points, that suggests a final score in the neighborhood of Saints 29, Raiders 22.

Only two games have a higher over/under right now: a matchup between the winless Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys (52.5), and a high-profile duel of Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens against Deshaun Watson’s Houston Texans (52.5).

For context, the Saints offense scored 27 points on a very good Buccaneers defense in Week 1, helped out with Janoris Jenkins’ interception returned for a defensive touchdown. Meanwhile, the Raiders hung 34 points on the Panthers, fueled by Josh Jacobs’ three touchdown runs.

So we may be in for more fireworks in prime time. And that should get fans — and bettors — excited.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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WATCH: Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf connect for Seahawks score

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson found wide receiver DK Metcalf in Atlanta for the pair’s first touchdown of the 2020 NFL regular season

The Seattle Seahawks increased their lead over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday when quarterback Russell Wilson connected with wide receiver DK Metcalf for the duo’s first touchdown of the NFL regular season.

Wilson went deep and Metcalf was able to haul in the 38-yarder for the score. Seattle’s drive went 10 plays for 75 yards and took 5:19 off the clock.

After the TD, Seattle took a 21-12 lead over Atlanta, but there would be more touchdowns to come . . .

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49ers troll the Saints, advise fans to ‘grab a face mask’ during pandemic

The San Francisco 49ers got in a dig at the New Orleans Saints on Twitter while reminding fans to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic

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The novel coronavirus pandemic has continued to spread throughout the United States, with hotbeds of infections growing in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. California has also been hit hard, prompting the San Francisco 49ers to send a message to their fans advocating for personal health and safety measures.

Unfortunately, the New Orleans Saints caught a stray. The 49ers shared a message on Twitter saying, “Be a saint. Grab a face mask,” complete with a brief video of one of the 2019 season’s lowest moments for Saints fans: free safety Marcus Williams’ desperate face mask penalty to save a would-be touchdown catch-and-run by 49ers tight end George Kittle near the end of that loss.

It’s a low blow; hopefully the Saints will get the opportunity to strike back in their 2020 rematch with San Francisco, scheduled for Nov. 15. But more Americans must follow that advice and mask up, preventing further coronavirus infections and potentially saving lives, if we’re going to get there.

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NFL rule proposal for 4th-and-15 attempt instead of onside kick fails

The recent proposal for NFL teams to attempt a 4th-and-15 conversion following a score failed to pass for the second consecutive year.

The proposition for NFL teams to skip an onside kick and go for it on fourth-and-15 from their 25-yard line following a score failed to pass for the second consecutive year.

This rule was proposed in response to the extremely low probability of an onside kick being recovered by the kicking team, which was 10.7% for the 2019 season. Research found that plays that require converting a fourth-and-15 after a score have a 28.6% success rate.

NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay told USA TODAY that teams do not want to make it too easy for an opposing team to come back from a deficit.

“There definitely is that theory that you don’t want to make a comeback too easy,” McKay said. “You’ve worked hard all game to be ahead, and you don’t want a rule change to come in and all of a sudden say, ‘We’re going to completely change the odds of you being able to preserve that lead.’ People wanted to hear those statistics. … In those people’s minds, ‘Let’s not make this too easy.’”

There have been a few new rule changes, but nothing related to onside kicks for 2020.

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Cameron Jordan invites Vikings to watch the rest of the playoffs from his couch

New Orleans Saints players Cameron Jordan and Michael Thomas offered a spot on their couches with the playoff-eliminated Minnesota Vikings

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Who does Twitter better than Cameron Jordan?

The New Orleans Saints defensive end followed up a career-best 15.5-sack season by getting voted into the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro second team. And even if his squad exited the playoffs sooner than expected, he hasn’t allowed 24-hour ribbing from Minnesota Vikings fans to get him down.

So when the Vikings were eliminated in a one-sided 27-10 loss on the road to the San Francisco 49ers, Jordan did what any neighborly soul would do: he offered a spot on his couch to the Vikings and their fans, who are now stuck on the outside looking in just like he was. How’s that for spinning a negative into a positive?

But Jordan wasn’t the only Saints player to take some time to laugh at the Vikings’ expense. Wide receiver Michael Thomas also lit up his Twitter timeline, bringing the jokes and welcoming Minnesota to a long, cold offseason. Maybe he and Jordan will host a playoff-viewing party for all their opponents who also won’t be playing in Super Bowl LIV.

https://twitter.com/Cantguardmike/status/1216151314520006657

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Michael Thomas says he caught 7 passes last week with a broken hand

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas took some happiness in seeing the Minnesota Vikings fall, and shed some light on his injury.

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The Minnesota Vikings were steamrolled by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs, losing 27-10 on the road just a week after they beat the New Orleans Saints in a big upset.

Few people were as happy to see Minnesota fall on its face as Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, the two-time first-team All-Pro who led his team with seven catches for 70 yards in the wild-card round. Thomas had himself a ball going back-and-forth with Vikings fans on social media, but added an interesting detail — he says he played with a broken hand last week.

It’s possible he’s telling the truth. Thomas was limited in practice for two weeks with an unspecified hand injury, and his production in his final two games noticeably trailed off from his season averages. In those last two matchups with the Vikings and Carolina Panthers, Thomas caught just 11 passes for 107 yards; he averaged 9.3 receptions per game and 107.8 receiving yards per game in the 2019 season. So a broken hand would explain the drop-off.

However, the other part of Thomas’s statement isn’t exactly correct. He called out the Vikings receiving corps for failing to show up against the 49ers, joking, “I don’t think anyone got more than (one) catch,” but the truth is that Stefon Diggs (two receptions) and Adam Thielen (five catches) combined for as many completions as Thomas posted a week ago. That isn’t exactly ideal, and their struggles against a 49ers secondary that Thomas and his teammates dropped 46 points on does a lot to explain why this one was so lopsided.

Now, here’s hoping Thomas spends his offseason healing up and getting his body right. He took a lot of hits while breaking the NFL single-season record for catches (149), and appears to have even broken his hand. The Saints should be right back in Super Bowl contention next season, and they’ll need Thomas to lead them again if they’re going to reach that goal.

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Saints’ season comes to abrupt end, Vikings win in overtime 26-20

The New Orleans Saints 2019 season ended abruptly, with a wild-card round playoffs exit after losing to the Minnesota Vikings, 26-20.

Things didn’t go as planned for the New Orleans Saints. They entered the playoffs as a heavy favorite to go the distance and win the Super Bowl, but the Minnesota Vikings hit them in the mouth, took the lead, and didn’t let go, even if the Saints rallied late to force the game to overtime. A touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Kyle Rudolph on third down from the goal-line stunned the Saints defense, and gave Minnesota the 26-20 victory.

The Saints just didn’t execute well. Their offensive line, stocked with Pro Bowl and All-Pro talent, was bullied by an admittedly strong Vikings defensive line. Left guard Andrus Peat has been the weak link in that chain for years, and on Sunday, he broke. While Drew Brees didn’t have his sharpest day at quarterback, too often he wasn’t given any time to even read the field before his vision filled with purple jerseys.

And it’s not like Vikings coach Mike Zimmer did anything exotic, groundbreaking, or seriously creative. He moved his best pass rushers inside so that they would have a speed-to-power advantage over the Saints guards. New Orleans’ big men up front never really struggled to mirror their opponents or move around; they simply failed to win one-on-one battles. It was a battle of fundamentals that the Vikings won.

It’s disappointing to see the Saints’ season end this way. After everything they’ve fought through — injuries to everyone from rookie backup linebackers to the franchise quarterback, suspensions before and during the season, tough-to-swallow losses to longtime rivals — they’ve gone out with a whimper. It’s almost anticlimactic. Even on Sunday they rallied around a defense that came through in so many clutch moments and rode a furious spark from do-it-all quarterback Taysom Hill. But it wasn’t enough when the offense couldn’t pick itself up off the floor.

The good news is that they’ll be back. Brees played so well this season that it’s impossible to think he’ll leave the game behind, not with so much unfinished business. The Saints’ core players are all either young or under contract for the foreseeable future. Next year’s schedule compares favorably to the season they just had. They’ll enter the 2020 offseason just as likely to go all the way as they were in this one.

But that disappointment can’t be overlooked. They shouldn’t be going into a long offseason looking to chase that elusive second Super Bowl trophy. They should be defending a championship and hoping to secure a third. Instead, the Saints are back in familiar territory — as underachievers.

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WATCH: Marshawn Lynch punches it in from the 1-yard line

Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown from the 1-yard Sunday night, Week 17 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Marshawn Lynch no longer has unfinished business.

The Seahawks gave the ball to Lynch on the one-yard line Sunday night against the San Francisco 49ers and the running back punched it in to score his first touchdown in his second stint in Seattle.

Unlike in Super Bowl XLIX, the powers that be opted to run the ball and turned to the one player who could get it done.

Lynch didn’t get his first carry of the game until late in the first quarter. As expected, rookie Travis Homer got the start Sunday night. Here’s a look at Lynch’s first touch.

Although the Seahawks ultimately lost the game 26-21, the fans got to see what they’ve been waiting over four years for . . . the return of Lynch and his epic touchdown performances.

Lynch finished the night with 12 carries for 34 yards and the one score. He and the Seahawks will face off against the Eagles in Philadelphia in the wild-card round next weekend.

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