Football

Bryce Young returned to the Panthers starting lineup against the Broncos on Sunday and it remains to be seen if it was a cameo appearance or not. Young was benched after two games, but was back in the lineup because Andy Dalton injured his right thumb in a car accident last week. He led the team to touchdowns on their first and last drives and wound up 24-of-37 for 224 yards in the 28-14 loss, but threw a pair of interceptions while struggling to move the offense over the rest of the game. The good moments might have been enough to give the Panthers cause to see if the first pick of the 2023 draft can improve over the second half of the season, but head coach Dave Canales gave little idea of the team’s thinking when he spoke to reporters after the game. “We will look at all the information,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “We’ll look at Andy’s health over the next couple of days, and we’ll make that decision, and we’ll have an answer for you.” The Panthers played without their top two wide receivers and that likely contributed to the inconsistency that kept the Panthers from making a push for a win on Sunday. The coming days will bring word on whether the Panthers are going to give Young another chance to show that he’s capable of giving them something better.

Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins didn’t have a lot of time to learn the Chiefs offense ahead of Sunday’s game against the Raiders, but it also didn’t take him long to show the kind of impact he can have on the field. Hopkins picked up 13 yards to convert a third down on the opening drive of the game and quarterback Patrick Mahomes called the play by his new teammate “high-level stuff” when he spoke to reporters after the game. “For this down, in that situation, for him to run it and be in the right position, it shows that he’s gonna fit in perfectly in this offense,” Mahomes said, via Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star. Hopkins finished the day with two catches for 29 yards, which would usually be seen as modest numbers for a receiver of his caliber. It was his first game for a new team, however, and that makes the focus on what it might mean for him and the Chiefs and the future.

The Bengals did a lot of work to dig themselves out of an 0-3 hole over the last few weeks, but that progress was hard to notice when Sunday’s game against the Eagles came to an end. After Chase Brown’s touchdown run tied the game at 17-17 in the third quarter, the Bengals gave up the next 20 points on their way to a 37-17 loss that dropped them to 3-5 on the season. They are also winless at home, but neither of those things is dimming quarterback Joe Burrow’s hopes for the season. Burrow said at his postgame press conference that 10 wins is usually enough to get into the playoffs and called winning seven of the remaining nine games “doable” for the Bengals. “We’ve done it before,” Burrow said, via a transcript from the team. “I know the players we’ve got in there. You’ve just got to treat it week by week. Any game is winnable. You’ve just got to go and do it.” The path to 10 wins starts with a home game against the Raiders next Sunday and a loss there won’t create much support for Burrow’s belief in the team’s long-term hopes for the season.

The 49ers have blown a couple of big leads this season, so their 17-point lead over the Cowboys early in the fourth quarter on Sunday night didn’t exactly put anyone at ease about the final result.   The way the fourth quarter played out didn’t do so either. The 49ers allowed that lead to be whittled to six points on two touchdowns by Cowboys wideout CeeDee Lamb, and Dallas got the ball back with a chance to win with three minutes left on the clock. The 49ers forced four straight incompletions to seal the 30-24 win, but linebacker Fred Warner wasn’t doing any bragging when all was said and done. “I was frustrated; we made it a game when it didn’t need it to be, especially defensively,” Warner said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “Freebies; they didn’t have to earn it. 88 [Lamb] is wide open, their best player. We can’t let that happen. We put ourselves in that situation, so we had to get ourselves out. It was about going out there and finishing the game, and we did that.” The 49ers have had their issues, but no one has run away with the NFC West, and they can hope for better health in the second half of the season, so the frustrations of the first two months may soon give way to smiles about what the future holds in San Francisco. The story has not been edited by 24x7sportshub and is published from a syndicated feed.

Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall and defensive lineman Jarran Reed got in each other’s faces on the field and had to be separated from a full-scale fight on the sidelines during Sunday’s loss to the Bills. Hall was called for roughing the passer, and the penalty set up a Bills touchdown. Reed appeared to call Hall out for it both immediately after the penalty and again on the sidelines after the touchdown. Hall didn’t take kindly to that, but he said after the game that he appreciates Reed’s veteran leadership. “We told each other we love each other,” Hall said. “There’s no bad blood” and that he has to play smart.  “He loves the game,” Hall said of Reed. “I love the game. In that moment, things got heated. He’s a leader and he’s the leader of our group. When stuff hits the fan, you have to lean on all the guys and maybe we both could have done some things a bit better.” Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald seemed more upset about the penalty than the fight. “Wasn’t a smart penalty,” Macdonald said. “Just that’s not how we train our guys to attack quarterbacks, so wasn’t a smart move.” Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins was so taken aback by seeing two opponents fighting each other that he said he even tried to break them up. “For them to be fighting each other on the field, ‘Bro, look. Y’all are a team. Tone it down and come on. Next play,’” Dawkins said he told them. Perhaps the Seahawks need a veteran leader like Dawkins. The story has not been edited by 24x7sportshub and is published from a syndicated feed.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott blamed his own two interceptions for his team’s loss to the 49ers on Sunday night. Asked what he has to do better, Prescott answered, “Not turn the ball over, period.” Prescott said a great leaping interception by San Francisco’s Ji’Ayir Brown never should have happened and Prescott should have thrown it away if he couldn’t get it to receiver CeeDee Lamb. “I don’t have to be perfect, but I damn sure can’t be having the turnovers,” Prescott said. “I’ve just got to eat that, take that sack. The second one was as boneheaded of an interception as I feel like I’ve had. Trying to make a play, too much confidence in myself right there. Should’ve just thrown it away. Wish I would’ve put more heat on it so it would’ve been to CeeDee or out of bounds. That one hurts, starting off the third quarter that way, allowed them to get a touchdown there, you look at the end at the score, a touchdown’s the difference. Once again, we put ourselves behind on the turnover battle, and that’s on me. We can’t have that if we’re playing to win games, and I’ve got to clean that up. Period.” Prescott now has eight interceptions through seven games this season and is on pace to set a new career-high with 19 interceptions this season. Prescott is right, he has to clean that up.

Things are not going well in Dallas. Sunday night’s loss to the 49ers was punctuated by cornerback Trevon Diggs — who declined to talk to reporters in the locker room — confronting a reporter in the hallway at Levi’s Stadium. Mike Leslie of WFAA had reposted video of Diggs seemingly not going all out in an effort to tackle 49ers tight end George Kittle during a second quarter catch-and-run. “What is Trevon Diggs doing on this play?” Leslie asked on Twitter. Newy Scruggs posted the video of the exchange between Diggs and Leslie. “That’s what you took from that?” Diggs said. “Out of that whole play, that’s what you took from that? You don’t know football. You can’t do nothing that I do. You can’t go out there and do nothing. Stay in your lane, buddy. Stop trying me, dog.” “Just asking the question, Trevon,” Leslie said. “I mean, I’m happy to have you answer the question.” “Out of that whole play, that’s what you took from that? That’s what you got from that? Out of that whole play, that’s what you got from that?” “We can talk about it more,” Leslie said. And then came the hammer from Diggs as he walked away: “Talk about deez nuts.” It’s never a good look for the player to do what Diggs said, especially when the reporter asked a fair question. What was Diggs doing? If he had talked to reporters in the locker room (as required by league rules), the question could have been formally asked and answered. And while Cowboys owner Jerry Jones generally embraces any and all attention his team can muster, this definitely isn’t the good kind of attention.