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NFL Preseason: Patriots again struggle without Brady
By The Associated Press
Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:29 AM PDT
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady has yet to play in an exhibition game while nursing an injured right foot, and the New England Patriots have played poorly three times without him.
The latest effort produced a 27-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday night.
The Eagles returned two kicks for touchdowns in the last 1:35 of the first half, Donovan McNabb led three long drives, and backup Kevin Kolb directed a 90-yard march to David Akers’ second field goal on their opening series of the third quarter.
By that time, it was 27-3 and Matt Cassel was done for the night after failing for the third straight game to show he deserved to remain as backup to Brady, last season’s NFL MVP.
Cassel completed 8 of 14 passes for 60 yards and hasn’t led a touchdown drive on any of his 15 series. He hobbled off after being sacked on his last play with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter.
Falcons 17, Titans 3
ATLANTA — Matt Ryan, making his first preseason start, opened the second half with a go-ahead touchdown pass and Atlanta beat Tennessee.
Ryan, the third pick in the draft, continued his bid to start as a rookie for the Falcons (1-2). He completed 15 of 21 passes for 102 yards with a 1-yard scoring pass to another rookie, Harry Douglas, and no interceptions. Another Atlanta rookie, Thomas Brown, scored on a 9-yard run with 3:22 left to add to the lead.
Ryan outplayed Tennessee starter Vince Young — the No. 3 pick in 2006. Young was 9-of-18 for 102 yards and an interception for the Titans (2-1).
Cowboys 23, Texans 22
IRVING, Texas — Tony Romo made up for overthrowing Terrell Owens on a certain touchdown and later getting intercepted in the end zone by completing 15 of 19 passes for 166 yards and a TD in Dallas’ victory over Houston.
Houston backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels ran 8 yards for a touchdown with 2:05 left. Instead of a tying extra point, the Texans went for a 2-point conversion but Jacoby Jones couldn’t handle the pass in the end zone.
Packers 27, Broncos 24
DENVER — Aaron Rodgers bounced back from a bad game to complete 18 of 22 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown in Green Bay’s win over Denver.
Rodgers, Brett Favre’s replacement, led Green Bay (1-2) to scores on four of his five possessions and was 16-for-19 for 178 yards against the Broncos’ starters, including a 10-yard touchdown toss to Donald Driver on the game’s opening drive.
He added a 1-yard sneak for a TD against the Broncos’ reserves to open the second half before giving way to rookie Brian Brohm.
Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler was effective if not as accurate, leading Denver (1-2) to scores on all three of its first-half possessions.
That included a 99-yard touchdown drive that chewed up most of the second quarter and on an 80-yard TD drive that took all of 16 seconds.
Cutler finished 6-of-13 for 115 yards. |
