NEWSLETTER
Every year during the lead up I get so excited for the Hall of Fame Game. Football is BACK. The NFL will be on my TV screen. We’ve finally made it out of the slow time of the sports calendar. Then the actual game kicks off. It’s a rude awakening that while there is indeed football on our television screens, there’s still a little bit to go to the real thing. That said, I’ll take the free sample over nothing.
The power outage after the third quarter was incredibly fitting. We had a close (not good, but at least close) game headed into the final frame. Then boom, lights out, sit there, and wait while we figure out how to finish this final stretch.
Insert Aaron Rodgers darkness retreat joke here.
That’s what tonight’s game was, like just about every Hall of Fame Game before it. It wasn’t very good, the play was sloppy, but we just got that taste we needed. Only a month left to go!
Key Moments
Zach Wilson goes DEEP to Malik Taylor
The first portion of the game was filled with backup quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Kellen Mond trying to move their teams down the field without much success. Both 2021 NFL Draft Class members did make some decent throws in that first quarter. Kellen Mond moved the Browns into field goal range thanks to a nice throw to third-round pick out of Tennesse, Cedric Tillman. Cleveland missed the eventual field goal attempt it led to, however.
Wilson later in the same quarter found third-year wide receiver Malik Taylor with a beautiful deep ball down the sideline for a 57-yard pickup. Similarly to Cleveland, the Jets had to settle for a field goal attempt on the drive. Greg Zuerlein however drilled the attempt to give New York a 3-0 lead.
Jets turn turnovers into points
The first touchdown of the game came off the Jets defense making a play. Chazz Surratt of the Jets picked off Kellen Mond on the first play of a Browns drive in the second quarter. Three plays later, Israel Abanikanda made his best play of the night taking a run off the left side into the endzone from 10 yards out. Abanikanda is competing for secondary touches in the Jets backfield this preseason, he got the majority of the carries for New York tonight.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson steals the show
The fifth-round pick out of UCLA looked cool, calm, and confident all night once he got into the game for Kellen Mond. The stat sheet might say he was responsible for one touchdown – a slick 22-yard touchdown pass to Alex Watkins in the 4th quarter to give Cleveland a 21-16 lead. But he also made a direct impact on the Browns’ second touchdown of the night that brought the score to 16-14.
DTR handed the ball off to fellow UCLA Bruin Demetric Felton Jr out of the backfield who didn’t have much to work with in the backfield. Thompson-Robinson then took it upon himself to throw a really nice block on the right side of the line of scrimmage that sprung Felton Jr for an 18-yard touchdown run.
Both stat lines looked similar between Kellen Mond and Thompson-Robinson, but the eye test favored DTR tonight. That’s one preseason game down, and it means we’re that much closer to opening night of the NFL season.
