The Rams head to Denver for final preseason game

By Zakary Haines

LOS ANGELES- As the preseason is coming to a close, coaches are getting one final look at their players before the final cuts come in. Tonight’s game is critical for many players, as the Rams must cut down from 80 players to 53. The last four players cut include running back Raymond Calais (who had foot surgery), defensive back Paris Ford, tight end Kyle Markway, and quarterback Delvin Hodges. With that in mind, here are the groups to watch out for in tonight’s game against the Denver Broncos.

Running Backs: With the trade of Sony Michel, it looks like the Rams have reignited the competition for the number one running back spot. With Cam Akers out for the season with a torn Achilles and Darrell Henderson Jr. not performing well during the preseason. This leaves an open competition for Otis Anderson, Jake Funk, and Xavier Jones to land a spot on the Rams’ final roster. Funk led the team in rushing yards against the Raiders last week. Expect there to be more run plays to help determine who will make the cut. 

Inside Linebackers: This group has been spared any cuts as the coaching staff tries to see the best fit. That could change come next week. This game will be essential to show who will come up big for the Rams’ defense. That includes tackles for loss, filling gaps, and stopping the other team’s running game. Kenny Young and Troy Reeder are expected to be the starters, but that has not stopped Travin Howard from making his mark. As for Micah Kiser, this will be their last chance to prove he belongs on the team.

Wide Receivers: Another group that has been unaffected by roster cuts until now is the wide receivers. Most starters have been identified, such as Robert Woods, Connor Kupp, and Desean Jackson. As for other receivers, this game is a “prove it” game. Some of the top performers so far have been JJ Koski, Trishton Jackson, and Jeremaih Haydel. As for the rest of the depth chart, that will be determined in today’s game. Expect the routes to be more complicated, and players expected to push the yards after catching even further.

If there was ever a time to shine, this is it. This third and final preseason contest can make or break some players’ NFL careers, so it is important to leave it all out there on the field. The Rams will need to tighten up their roster, and some players are not making this an easy task. Another late-night kickoff is set for 9:05 pm est in Denver. The final roster cuts are to be done by Tuesday, August 31st at 4 pm est.

Dallas vs Jacksonville Gunslinger Edition

By Mark Halpern

Well, last week, we witnessed another Dallas preseason loss to the hands of the Texans. When it comes to the preseason, I don’t care about the wins or losses. This time is used to narrow down your team to 53 players. This time is coming, and this upcoming game with Jacksonville will be interesting.

The Cowboys know who their number 1 gunslinger is this season, and that is Dak Prescott. However, who is going to handle the backup spot and possible 3rd string? Garrett Gilbert, Cooper Rush, and Ben DeNucci will all have time to show off their skills. This week the first-string offense except for Cee Dee Lamb {Covid Protocol} Dak Prescott {No Need to Injure} and Zeke Elliot {Being cautious} will play at least a quarter. This will give whoever starts this game a slight advantage. Also, the Jacksonville defense first-stringers will be in making a challenge on whoever takes that first snap. Before last week Garrett Gilbert was the clear frontrunner but, Cooper Rush gave the offense a rush of excitement, throwing for two TDS. This leaves poor Ben DeNucci to most likely get mop-up duty against 2nd and possibly 3rd stringers if he gets a chance. In the end, I believe that DeNucci will be cut but will join the practice squad.

As for the Dallas defense, most of the Cowboy’s first stringers will play a quarter to a half except for Demarcus Lawrence {injury. Will be ready for week 1} and Malik Hooker {Covid Protocol}. The Dallas secondary feels good to go, and they have named their defense strategy “The No-Fly Zone.” I like it, it’s new, and I love to hear that they will be roaming and looking for those Picks. The Dallas Linebacker core of Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, and Keanu Neal has been rated in the top five crews in football; however, Micha Parsons and Jabril Cox have been performing at an unreal rate and could challenge for more time than they were expecting to get. I am excited to see Malik Hooker this season. He has been a coach to most of the secondary since he was a leader in the locker room. Jacksonville will go with their first-string offense for the first half, and this is an ideal scenario for the Dallas defense to get a good challenge put in front of them. If there are a few squeaky cogs in the system, they will be fixed very quickly.
This Cowboys offense and defense really can be something special. Just this past Monday, Dak Prescott has been given the all-clear to re ramp up his workouts to be prepared to take on the Buccaneers in two weeks. Once that is released in the upcoming week, I will have a complete rundown of the Dallas depth chart.

New York Jets Final Preseason

By Eric Ford

Well, I am hopeful…….. Till again, week 1. Zach Wilson, all I got to say is WOW and save some for later. Let us talk about Zach Wilson. An outstanding game he had. He went 9/11, 128 yards, and two touchdowns. Even in the pocket, he looked good. The throws did not seem forced, and I feel he still has much more to offer at quarterback. My only tip for Coach Salah is, let him rest. Do not play him this game against the Eagles. Let him learn from the bench and watch the offense. The running game was pretty good as well. Micheal Carter rushed for ten carries and 52 yards. I have a feeling he will be a 3rd down back. Corey Davis had four receptions for 70 yards and Tyler Kroft with two receptions for 36 yards and two touchdowns. The offense looks like they were moving. The defense did not look like a problem. My only struggle is the pass defense, but I am not too concerned. If this game was only a tiny snippet of what’s to come to the rest of the season, I have a reason to be excited.

Side note before we talk about this coming game. Carl Lawson is on the injured reserve with a torn Achilles. He will be out for the rest of the year. This is sad news, but something that gave me hope was that Coach Salah and General Manager Joe Douglas were actively looking for replacements through free agency or trades. As a fan, I love to see the GM invested in the team with the right players to make it work.
Now the last preseason game against the Eagles. This is the game where the bench players get to show out and prove why they are needed to be on the team. We do not need to put in our starters. They have proved themselves in the last couple of weeks. This is when the bench players get to show out to either stay on the team or at least practice squad. The score does not even matter, playout and have fun.

Jacksonville Jaguars Preseason Week 2 post-game

By: Noah Trombley

The second game for the Jaguars this preseason is in the books and it was an interesting time for Jaguars fans filled with moments of terror and some more downs unfortunately.

The moment of terror came when rookie phenom quarterback Trevor Lawrence took off out of the pocket on a 3rd and 8 play in the second quarter and lunged for the first down, getting smacked by three saints players in the process. Thankfully Lawrence would be able to get up after the play was over and continue the drive but the young QB is gonna have to learn that his value to the Jaguars is in his arm talent and he needs to learn to slide to protect himself when he does take off a few times. Besides that however there was a lot to like from the rookie quarterback. He went 14/23 for 113 yards and continued to show poise and awareness in the pocket. 

However there was one massive player injury this week that hurts one of the few bright spots coming into this season. Rookie running back, and teammate at Clemson with Lawrence, Travis Etienne will miss the entire 2021 season after being placed on IR with a left foot lisfranc injury, meaning the bones or ligaments in the middle of his foot have been torn or broken. This is a huge blow to what would’ve been a stacked running back duo of Etienne and James Robinson who last year went over 1000 rushing yards. Etienne’s power combined with Robinson’s speed would’ve made them a hard duo to contend with and could’ve taken some pressure off of Lawrence to do so much during games. Robinson will need to repeat what he did last year in order for the Jaguars to have a good running attack and account for Etienne’s absence. If he can then the Jaguars should still be a very dynamic team offensively and could put up some points throughout the season. 

The King Of New York

By Michael Rifkin

On Friday, Henrik Lundqvist announced his retirement from hockey at the age of 39. The New York Rangers selected Lundqvist in the seventh round of the 2000 NHL draft (205th overall). Before the 2020 season, the Rangers, the only franchise Lundqvist had played for, bought out his contract, and he signed a one-year contract with the Washington Capitals, and didn’t play for them due to heart issues and underwent open-heart surgery.

Lundqvist retires with 459 sixth all-time wins, 2.43 Goals Against Average, and .918 Save Percentage, and 64 shutouts. Lundqvist had 61 wins in the playoffs with a 2.30 Goals Against Average, a .921 save percentage, and ten shutouts. Lundqvist was at his best in win or go home game 7s. In his eight-game 7s, Lundqvist went 6-2 with a 1.11 Goals Against Average, and a .961 save percentage. The craziest part of these numbers is that Lundqvist never allowed more than two goals in game 7s. The Rangers went to three conference finals with Lundqvist and one Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games. In what might have been the best stretch of Henrik’s career, the Rangers trailed the Pittsburgh Penguins 3 games to 1 in the 2014 Eastern Conference Semifinals. In games 5-7, Lundqvist stopped 102 of 105 shots en route to a comeback for the ages. Over those three games, the team was outshot 105-84. In 2011-12 Lundqvist went 39-18-5 with a 1.97 Goals Against Average, a .930 save percentage, and eight shutouts, which led him to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie and for ten consecutive seasons finished in the top 6 in voting.

Henrik embraced the fans as much as they embraced him. When he makes a big save, you can hear Madison Square Garden faithful chant his name. One day Henrik will go into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Rangers organization announced quickly on Friday that during this upcoming season, they will retire the number 30 in honor of Lundqvist, the franchise’s all-time leader in wins, in a ceremony that no doubt will be fit for a KING.

Buccaneers Preseason Recap #2

By Robert Mills

ORLANDO, FL – Well, that was a result nobody expected. The Buccaneers looked outmatched and outmanned early on in a 34 to 3 blowout loss to the titans. This now sets the Bucs at 0-2 for preseason and, worse yet, 0-2 at home. I guess we should all tell ourselves, for now, this is still preseason, and making the assumption more starters would play this game was a false statement. Tom Brady did not make an appearance, Joe Tryon got more playtime, and the only O-Lineman to play for the Bucs that will even see playing time in the regular season was Alex Cappa. Let’s break down this game a bit and what we should see moving forward.

Backups reigned supreme yet again in this game, unfortunately not in a perfect way. We got to see fewer projected starters for the regular season in this game and more 3rd strings and potential cut players. This includes players like CB Dee Delaney, CB Chris Wilcox, and RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who could be said are “fighting for a spot” to remain from being on the cut list come time for the regular season. Dee Delaney specifically had a rather rough outing missing some key tackles, though that was just one tick in a long list of issues the Buccaneers had this game. Shawn Vaughn also struggled greatly, averaging 2 yards per carry on nine attempts for 18 yards overall. The silver lining to the backup struggles was getting to see a lot more Kyle Trask. I was pleased to say I was wrong about how they planned to use him for preseason, and he had an okay outing again for this game (13/26, 131 yards, two ints, one fumble). The stats don’t tell the whole story as both of his interceptions were off-tipped passes, and a brilliant pass to the tight end late in the 3rd quarter resulted in a fumble and returned for a TD for the Titans.

Finding the silver linings in this game would be getting to see more TE O.J Howard (24 yards, three rec.) as he is still limited coming back from his back injury that occurred back in early August. Good to see him coming back as he played an essential role in the 2020 super bowl run. And once again, LB Joe Tryon will be talked about in this game. He was able to take 22 snaps for this game, and one of those snaps, he put some impressive moves on the OLB Dillon Radunz of the Titans and sack Matt Barkley in the dying seconds of the first half pushed titans out of field goal range. However, that was a short-lived celebration as the Titans made the 58-yard field goal.

It’s safe to say nobody wants to remember this game. We will see how the Buccaneers plan to creatively use their backups and 3rd stringers for their 3rd and final preseason game against the Texans Saturday at 7 pm in Houston. I want to predict more starters will play, but I was wrong last week, and it’s hard to say what they plan to do.

Lions vs Steelers Preseason #2 Recap

By Mark Halpern

Saturday, the Lions faced off against the Steelers in Pennsylvania, and for the first three quarters, it was all Steelers, and the Lions looked like kittens. A surprise was the Big Ben, who was not originally going to played suited up and had a tremendous first quarter throwing for 110 yards and two touchdowns. A surprise from the Lion’s side was that Jared Goff, who started the first preseason game, did not take any reps in this game, neither did 90% of the Detroit starters. The game looked like the New England/Philly game, to be honest. However, the Lions put up 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and almost made an incredible comeback.

For the most part, the Lions couldn’t get anything done against the Steeler’s first-string defense, and the Offense for the Lions couldn’t move the ball against the Steeler’s first or second-string players. The good thing for the Lions is that they didn’t turn the ball over once during the game, and neither did the Steelers. The Lions Defense could only muster one sack during the game, which has to be a concern for the Lions Coaching Staff.
There were a couple of bright spots, however. Quarterback David Blough threw an impressive 12/17 competed passes for 140 yards and a touchdown. Rookie Running back Craig Reynolds had five carries for 2 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Defensive player A.J Parker had eight tackles, and Derrick Barnes had six tackles and a sack.

If they want to be taken seriously this season, the Lions have to step up their game and fast with opening week just two weeks away. Jared Goff needs time to build up a repour with his team, so I expect to see the first-stringers for the Lions play a full half next week, or we could see a Lions team set another record going 0-17. The Lions wrap up the preseason next weekend against the Colts, and I expect to see the Lions starters play close to a half of the game. With more roster cuts coming this week, the Lions have some decision-making to do.

Dallas Vs Houston Preseason Recap

By Mark Halpern

Saturday the Cowboys faced off against the Houston Texans, and the result was another loss with a score of 20-14. There were some pleasant upsides to this loss, especially in the Quarterback battle. Yet again, the Cowboys didn’t have many first-string offensive players play long but, that is no excuse.

    Over the first three preseason games, the Cowboys played Garrett Gilbert as the starter, and Ben DeNucci and Cooper Rush were second and third. Gilbert came out and looked like a rookie completing 3/5 for 3 yards and a fumble. Cooper Rush came in and performed brilliantly. We heard the crowd give a “COOOOOP” chant, but it wasn’t for Amri Cooper, but Cooper Rush came out and was fire. Rush completed 1/12 passes for yards and two touchdowns. He finally turned things over to Ben DeNucci, and he, in my opinion, will be cut when the next cut down happens. DeNucci came in and completed 14/19 passes for a 120 yard but three costly interceptions. As of now, the competition is between Gilbert and Rush. The offensive line also gave up five sacks, and the quarterbacks were heavily pressured, so that didn’t help much.

   As for the starters, Amari Cooper did play but only for about two drives and had one rush for -4 yards. Cee Dee Lamb caught his only target for 13 yards, and then there was an excellent showing from Tony Pollard, who caught one of the touchdowns by Rush for six yards and rushed for another 20 yards. Noah Brown had an excellent showing of 3 receptions for 35 yards in the second half.

   On the defensive side of the ball, the Cowboys seemed off. They only recorded one sack when they were getting 4-5 per game in the other games. There wasn’t one defensive player that stood out amongst the others. The Cowboy’s defense didn’t record a turnover for the first time this preseason while the offensive gave up 3. 

     Over the past week, the Cowboys have linked to trade rumors with the Chicago bears for Nick Foles. The Cowboys see that they are in trouble for the second QB position, with Justin Fields probably going to win the starter position that will leave the Bears with Dalton and Foles. Dalton was with the Cowboys last year and had a below mediocre season. You would think he would adjust well but, he has lost a step over the last few years, and the Cowboys could get Foles and possibly sign him to an extension to seal a weak part of their depth chart.

    Next week the Cowboys will face the Jaguars, and I expect most of the first-string players get a quarter or more except for Dak Prescott. The media was told by head coach McCarthy that Prescott won’t play in the preseason to work back to full strength. According to the Dallas coaching staff, Dak is on track to start week one against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept 9th. Most of the first-stringers will play on the Defensive side except for Demarcus Lawrence and Malik Hooker as they are getting ready for Week 1.

     Even though the Cowboys Lost this week and there were some bright sides, the Coaches now must come together and make cuts this week. I expect DeNucci to be one of those and then possibly signed over to the practice squad.

Bengals at WFT Postgame

By Liam Sullivan

The Bengals were shocked by the Washington Football Team’s eight-point fourth quarter to lose their first preseason game at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. It was a victorious moment for WFT Head Coach Ron Rivera.

The Rookie out of Buffalo, Jaret Patterson, had a tremendous run into the end zone during the fourth quarter, followed by a successful two-point conversion scored by Antonio Gandy-Golden, the second-year player out of Liberty.

Patterson was the most productive running back for WFT with 16 carries for 71 yards, an average of 4.4 yards per carry.

Gandy-golden had three receptions for 38 yards, an average of 12.7 yards per reception.

Will Bradley-King, the Rookie out of Baylor, forced a fumble when he strip-sacked Kyle Shurmur.

Head Coach Zac Taylor described his team as “just not there.”

Joe Burrow sat out of the game, leaving most of the QB duties to Brandon Allen.

It was a showdown of the Allens as Kyle Allen was the QB for Washington.

Taylor Heinicke had the highest pass completion percentage at 84.6%, while Ryan Fitzpatrick averaged the most yards per completion, averaging 13.7 yards.

Jacques Patrick was the most productive Bengal in the ground game, running the rock with 42 yards on six carries, an average of seven yards per carry.

The wide receiving corps was very silent for Cincinnati. Trenton Irwin had two receptions for 24 yards, an average of 12 yards per carry.

One positive note for the defense was that Darius Phillips and Keandre Jones had five tackles each.

Overall, it was not a productive night for Cincinnati.

Next week the Washington Football Team (1-1) will close out the preseason when they host the Baltimore Ravens (2-0) at home, on Saturday, August 28th, at 6 PM.

The Bengals (1-1) will finish out their preseason when they head home to Paul Brown Stadium to host the Miami Dolphins (1-1) on Sunday, August 29th, at 4 PM.

Preseason Week #2 Titans vs Bucs

By Bill Murphy

Tampa Bay: Well, another week, another Titans win. Last night the Titans beat the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34-3. For the second week in a row, The Titans did not play any of their starters, Such as Ryan Tannehill, AJ Brown, and Derrick Henry. The Titans now have a preseason record of 2-0, while the Bucs have a record of 0-2 this preseason.

The battle for the position of backup quarterback between Logan Woodside and Matt Barkley continues. Last night, Barkley threw 12 completions out of 16 attempts, 115 yards, and two touchdowns, while Woodside threw seven completions out of 8 attempts, 64 yards, and one touchdown. Last week was Woodside’s week, and this week was Barkley’s week. As we come down to the last preseason game, we will soon find out who will be Tannehill’s backup.

The Titans have 266 yards from receiving and rushing when it comes to the rest of the offense. Touchdowns were scored by Mason Kinsey, Dez Fitzpatrick, and Mehki Sergeant. Sam Fricken also kicked two field goals. 

Like against the Falcons last week, the once struggling Titans defense held its ground against a Brady-less Bucs offense. The Titans defense pulled off three sacks, two interceptions and held the Bucs to 217 yards. They once again did not have their first draft pick, Cornerback Caleb Farley. The defense once again is improving and delivering throughout the season than it was last season.

The Titans are now 2-0 heading into their last preseason game of the year. Now some questions are hopefully going to be answered, such as is Tannehill going to play, Is either Woodside or Barkley going to be his number two? Is Julio Jones, AJ Brown, and Caleb Farley finally going to be on the field? Is the defense going to be as strong in the regular as they were in the preseason? Next week, we will find out when the Titans will play the Chicago Bears Saturday at 7:30 at home.