Mike Nugent kicked a 47-yard field goal with 54 seconds left, lifting the Cincinnati Bengals to a 23-22 season-opening victory over the New York Jets on Sunday.
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The Oakland Raiders stunned the New Orleans Saints in their Week 1 matchup by going for two instead of the normal point after attempt to force overtime.
Michael Crabtree lined up on the left flank and ran a fade toward the corner of the end zone. New Orleans missed an opportunity to negate that when Lutz, who was signed as a free agent earlier in the week, was wide left on a 50-yard field-goal attempt early in the fourth quarter.
For most of the New Orleans Saints’ season opener, they were showing the type of defensive improvement that had been one of their primary goals leading up to the season. It was also the longest in the career of Brees, who previously had a long of 86 to Marques Colston in 2006.
The Oakland Raiders entered training camp with a goal of reaching the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season, when they were defeated in Super Bowl XXXVII by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 48-21.
“I’m not going to start the season off complaining about the officials”, Saints Coach Sean Payton said. In addition to his first touchdown, he finished with three carries for 84 yards and two catches for 11 yards. Yet the Raiders celebrated too much, and were flagged, giving the Saints 15 extra yards on the ensuing kickoff. When Derek Carr hit Amari Cooper for the two-point conversion, the game was tied at 27 with 8:38 to play.
Snead had 9 for 172 and proves once again the Saints find no name receivers like you and I eat and drink during football games; it’s nearly effortless. New Orleans did a surprisingly respectable job of keeping Carr from completing touchdown passes, but the Saints gave up enough on the ground.
Brees called the late 2-point try gutsy, but not surprising. He took advantage of blown coverage by Williams to throw to a wide open Chris Hogan for 37 yards and a touchdown.
Cooks finished the game with six catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns on nine targets. Carr led the Raiders on an 11-play 75-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Seth Roberts with 47 seconds left.
Only the honest would cop to originally thinking Del Rio’s gamble was a mistake, but the truth is the call would have been the right move regardless of whether Michael Crabtree had caught the ball.
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Regardless, the best part of all of this is that in today’s National Football League, coaches largely never express any personality or say anything besides boilerplate PR quotes. “The guy’s got great hands”, Del Rio said.
