First Full 2024 NFL Exhibition Weekend Underway

August 10, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Battling against a big weekend of Olympics final matches, the NFL has its first full weekend of exhibition games.

It all got started on Thursday night with New England taking care of Carolina at home, 17-3. as Bailey Zappe took most of the snaps and went 12-for-20 for 108 yards with 0 TD's or INT's. Joe Milton III threw the teams' lone TD pass on its last score of the game, a 38-yard connection with JaQuae Jackson with 9 minutes remaining. Drake Maye and Jacoby Brisset saw limited action at QB.

Joey Slye added a 42-yard field goal to make it 10-0 early in the 4th. Milton was under center for 10 of the 17 points.

The other New England score came in the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Kevin Harris with Zappe at QB.

Carolina averted the shutout with a 41-yard Harrison Mevis field goal with 1:54 to go in the game. Jack Plummer was 11-of-21 for 86 yards and was sacked 5 times. Jake Luton was 7-of-9 for 38 yards and kept clean.

As a team, Carolina only managed 151 total yards compared to New England's 274. The punt-fest saw the Panthers kick the ball away 10 times to New England's 8.as they combined for 849 yards in punts.

The Giants and Lions were no more entertaining with a combined 14 punts (7 apiece). New York won 14-3 on pair of Eric Gray TD runs in the second quarter with a 48-yard burst, followed by a 1 -yard score on its next possession. The latter was set up when Detroit turned the ball over on downs on its 37 after failing to covert a 4th-and-1.

Detroit, the NFC North favorites, scored first with a 53-yard Jake Bates field goal in the rain with 3:21 to go in the first quarter. Bates was the star of the UFL season for the Michigan Panthers, going 3-of-4 from 60-plus yards with a long of 64 for a game-winner on opening weekend.

Nate Sudfeld took most of Detroit's snaps, going 13-of-24 for 96 yards in the first half while Hendon Hooker was 5-of-9 for 36 in the second half. Drew Lock got the start for the Giants, but Tommy DeVito came off the bench to lead both TD drives in the second quarter.

On Friday night, Miami downed Atlanta 20-13 at Hard Rock, the Houston Texans won 20-12 at Pittsburgh, and the Philadelphia Eagles took a 16-13 win at Baltimore on a 49-yard Jake Elliott walk-off field goal after Eric Jones was sacked and fumbled at the Philly 42 with 10 seconds left. The fumble came one play after Elliott doinked a 50-yarder off the right upright.

Here is the schedule for the rest of the week, courtesy Tennessean.com.

Saturday, Aug. 11