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‘Clemson days’ Sammy Watkins makes Chiefs even more dangerous | ESPN
“He made a quick move and showed off his speed,” Mahomes said. “We said he was back to his Clemson days.”
Watkins had 134 of his 198 yards after the catch. Such a high percentage is an indication he’s on top of his game, because one of his strengths is his ability to run after getting the ball.
”From the first one on, you saw him break tackles and split seams,” coach Andy Reid said. “There was no indecision after catches.”
Eye-Opening Weekend: Lamar Jackson, Sammy Watkins, Dak Prescott and the Pats Light It Up | MMQB
SAMMY WATKINS TAKES OFF FOR THE CHIEFS
Watkins’ first big hit came on an underneath route that he reached up to snag, before weaving through defenders for a 68-yard score.
“Just playing fast,” Watkins said. “It was like the third play, but Pat made eye-contact with me and I knew it was coming. After I caught the ball, I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is what I do. I’m gonna finish this play.’ That’s something I worked on: my focus in the offseason. The same things I was doing in high school and college, I think I got that mojo back. That confidence to go out there and make plays and make moves.”
Wherever he got it, that Zen landed him in the end zone. And it wouldn’t be long before he’d visit again.
Later in the first quarter, Reid’s play design worked, and Watkins got himself a lay-up.
“Wide open,” he said. “We just executed the play, and everything worked out the right way. Mecole [Hardman] pulled the safety and literally took one for the team. For me, I was really walking by myself. I didn’t have to do too much but literally run, hide and get open.”
4. Nine different receivers caught a pass for the Chiefs on Sunday.
Mahomes connected with nine different players on Sunday, as Watkins (9), Williams (6), Travis Kelce (3), Tyreek Hill (2), Anthony Sherman (1), McCoy (1), Blake Bell (1), Darwin Thompson (1) and Demarcus Robinson (1) all caught a pass.
Interestingly enough, it marked the Chiefs’ largest number of pass-catchers since last season’s Week 5 victory over Jacksonville.
Ex-Bills LeSean McCoy, Sammy Watkins star in Chiefs’ victory | Buffalo News
LeSean McCoy had 10 carries for a team-high 81 yards in his Kansas City Chiefs debut, but it was another former Buffalo Bills player who stole the show.
Sammy Watkins caught nine passes for a career-high 198 yards and three touchdowns as the Chiefs downed the host Jacksonville Jaguars, 40-26, Sunday.
Watkins enabled Kansas City to overcome the loss of Tyreek Hill, who signed a three-year contract extension late last week but left in the first quarter with a shoulder injury and was taken to a hospital.
The Chiefs’ offensive line, playing its first game without new Bills center Mitch Morse, did not allow a sack.
Jaguars opener will go down as worst in franchise history | Washington Post
The defense was a debacle. Sure, the unit might deserve a pass considering it was facing the most potent offense in the league. But there’s no excuse for tweaking the scheme and allowing Sammy Watkins to run mostly untouched for touchdowns of 68 and 49 yards.
Kansas City did anything it wanted, whenever it wanted.
“They are pretty damn good now,” coach Doug Marrone said. “They’ve done that to a lot of football teams.”
Ranking the 12 dumbest mistakes from a preseason-like Sunday in NFL Week 1
11. Patrick Mahomes no-looks a pass right outta the end zone
Patrick Mahomes has an innate ability to shock the NFL with streetball-style plays that seem impossible in real life but lead to major gains on the gridiron. This was not one of them.
Mahomes’ latest no-look pass was also a no-catch pass, soaring over Travis Kelce’s head and out of the end zone on third down. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you always should.
Some N.F.L. Kickers Are Off to a Wobbly Start | New York Times
The kicking failures of Week 1 were another reminder that in pro football, a kick is far from automatic. So let’s give a shout-out to the kicking stars: Justin Tucker of the Ravens was 8-for-8 on extra points. Three kickers, Harrison Butker of the Chiefs, Zane Gonzalez of the Cardinals and Stephen Gostkowski of the Patriots were all 4-for-4 on field-goal attempts. And the Rams’ Greg Zuerlein made the fantasy owners who drafted him as the top kicker this season look smart, belting the longest field goal of the week at 56 yards.
Jaguars placing Nick Foles on IR; trade for QB Dobbs | NFL.com
Foles is having surgery Monday to repair a broken left clavicle, which he suffered in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs.
In desperate need for QB depth, the Jaguars announced they have traded for Steelers backup quarterback Josh Dobbs. Rapoport added Pittsburgh will receive a 2020 fifth-rounder in the deal. Dobbs, a fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft, has attempted just 12 passes in his three-year career.
Foles completed 5 of 8 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown in his Jags debut. The Super Bowl MVP was relieved by the only other QB on Jacksonville’s roster, Gardner Minshew. The rookie completed 22 of 25 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Around the league
Odell Beckham violated league rule with $350K watch | NFL.com
Just one game into his time with the Browns, Odell Beckham is on a new watch list.
The star wide receiver sported a Richard Mille watch during Sunday’s season opener against the Titans. The accessory, valued at $350,000, violated a league rule that prohibits wearing hard objects, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, per sources. (It’s worth noting there isn’t a stipulation against wearing jewelry.)
Rapoport added the league will address the infraction with Beckham and the Browns but no discipline is expected. OBJ led Cleveland with seven receptions for 71 yards in the loss.
The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 1 | The Ringer
Winner: Lamar Jackson
Sunday, Jackson had the best game of any player in the NFL, and one of the best single-game quarterback performances of all time. Jackson was 17-for-20 passing for 324 yards with more touchdowns (five) than incompletions (three). He had a perfect passer rating, 158.3. ESPN’s QBR, which grades players on a scale of 1-100, gave Jackson a 99.4. It was just the fourth game in football history in which a quarterback had an adjusted yards per attempt of over 20 yards per pass, joining Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, and Drew Brees. It was only the 17th game in league history where a quarterback threw five or more touchdowns on 20 or fewer attempts. The Ravens ended up with 59 points, the most by any team since 2012.
Brady all-in on Pats’ signing of Brown, Kraft says | ESPN
“Kraft told me that when he broke the news to Tom Brady, Brady initially said, ‘I’m a hundred percent in.’ Two minutes later, Tom came back and said to Kraft, ‘I’m a thousand percent in.’ Then he came back two minutes later and said, ‘’I’m a million percent in.’”
In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride
We probably should have seen Sammy Watkins’ monster game coming
“He has always come back from injury so the demands of training camp when he came to us was a bit of a shocker,” Reid said. “Thought the (2018) season, it was tough, he got nicked up a little bit in camp last year and he was fighting back from that. Here he has been healthy. He hasn’t missed an OTA practice. He was one of the best receivers I have seen coming out of college. He was phenomenal and this is what you saw today. This is a tribute to the kid 100 percent.”
Chiefs-Jaguars: Making sense of snap counts
Defensive takeaways
As we expected, Juan Thornhill is indeed the starter at safety. He played every snap on defense (51). Other iron men include CB Bashaud Breeland, LB Anthony Hitchens and CB Charvarius Ward. S Tyrann Mathieu played all but one snap.
S Daniel Sorensen, one of last year’s “starters,” only saw 11 snaps on defense.
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