FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ other two quarterbacks each threw touchdown passes.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ other two quarterbacks each threw touchdown passes.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ trio was plagued by turnovers.
Brady’s scoring pass came after he threw an interception that Cory Williams returned 77 yards for a touchdown and the Patriots rebounded from a poor preseason debut for a 42-35 win on Friday night.
Brady’s backups also were sharp in their competition for the No. 2 quarterback job with rookie Jimmy Garoppolo throwing two touchdown passes and Ryan Mallett passing for a score and running for another.
The Eagles rarely had the ball early.
And when they got it later, they kept giving it away.
New England had two offensive series before the Eagles had even one since the Patriots’ first ended with Williams’ interception.
Brady threw the ball to Steve Maneri, but the tight end who had signed five days earlier didn’t turn around.
Williams hurt his hamstring on the play and didn’t return.
The Patriots tied it on their next possession on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Kenbrell Thompkins, ending Brady’s night after completing 8 of 10 passes for 81 yards in two series.
Then Philadelphia’s turnovers began.
Ifeanyi Momah lost a fumble after catching Nick Foles’ pass on their first offensive play. Mark Sanchez threw an interception on his second play of the third quarter and Momah lost another fumble midway through the third quarter after a reception on quarterback Matt Barkley’s first play.
And on the second play of Barkley’s next series, his pass was picked off by Nate Ebner.
Add Alex Henery’s missed 47-yard field-goal attempt and a bunch of defensive penalties and coach Chip Kelly had plenty of mistakes to point out after a sloppy performance that followed three days of joint practices with the Patriots.
Garoppolo picked right up after Brady left, throwing scoring passes on his first two series, a 15-yarder to James Develin and a 4-yarder to Brandon LaFell for a 21-7 lead. The pass to LaFell was New England’s 35th offensive play. Philadelphia had just six at the time.
The Eagles tied it at 21 at halftime with two scoring passes in the last four minutes, a 6-yarder from Foles to Zach Ertz and a 6-yarder from Sanchez to Arrelious Benn.
The score was tied 28-28 before touchdowns by two free agents, a 17-yard catch by Brian Tyms from Mallett and a 10-yard run by Roy Finch that gave the Patriots a 42-28 lead with 5:15 left in the third quarter.
Barkley’s 27-yard scoring pass to Henry Josey cut the lead to seven points on the last play of the third quarter. The Eagles drove to the Patriots 1-yard line, but were stopped on fourth down with 4:39 to go.
SAINTS 31, TITANS 24
NEW ORLEANS — Jimmy Graham caught two touchdown passes, celebrating both with banned celebratory dunks over the goal post, in New Orleans’ victory over Tennessee.
With star quarterback Drew Brees resting his sore abdomen, Luke McCown started for New Orleans (2-0) and threw both of scoring passes to Graham. However, Graham’s celebrations drew penalty flags, and coach Sean Payton appeared annoyed after the second one, barking in Graham’s direction on the sideline.
Ryan Griffin also had two TD passes for New Orleans.
Titans starter Jake Locker was 8 of 10 for 75 yards and a touchdown to Justin Hunter. Former LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger passed for his first two TDs as a pro, but was threw an interception as the Titans (1-1) turned the ball over five times.