Michael Vick was 6-for-7 for 110 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown pass to Brian Finneran, before the Atlanta Falcons squandered a big lead in their preseason opener, losing to the Green Bay Packers 27-21 Saturday night.
Vick, voted to the Pro Bowl in his first year as a starter, showed no signs of letting up. Playing just the first quarter, he guided a pair of touchdown drives before another possession stalled out on downs in Green Bay territory.
PHOTO: AP
Panthers 20, Redskins 0
North Carolina, Carolina's new running back Stephen Davis ran for 74 yards on seven carries against his former team as the Panthers beat Washington 20-0. It was Carolina's first win ever over Washington.
Titans 10, Browns 6
In Nashville, Tennessee, Eddie George ran for a touchdown and Joe Nedney kicked a 22-yard field goal as Tennessee held off Cleveland in the exhibition opener for both teams.
Lions 26, Steelers 13
In Detroit, Joey Harrington threw a touchdown pass to Scotty Anderson in the final seconds of the first half to give Steve Mariucci a win in his first game as Detroit's coach. Mariucci, let go from San Francisco after going 60-43 in six seasons, returned to his home state in February, replacing Marty Mornhinweg, who went 5-27 in two seasons.
Jaguars 16, Vikings 14
In Minneapolis, Ike Charlton returned a fumble 97 yards for a first-half touchdown to lead Jacksonville to the win in coach Jack Del Rio's first game.
The Vikings, whose 41 turnovers were the second most in the league last year, fumbled four times -- losing two of them that led to 10 Jaguars points.
Seth Marler kicked two field goals, and Mark Brunell looked sharp leading Jacksonville's first-team offense. He went 10-for-13 for 110 yards and Jimmy Smith caught five balls for 70 yards.
Broncos 20, Texans 12
In Houston, Jake Plummer threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Chris Cole in his Denver debut.
Plummer misfired on his first two attempts before completing his last three for 47 yards on the TD drive in the first quarter. The scoring pass, which like most of Plummer's throws came on a rollout, hit Cole on the right side of the end zone.
49ers 24, Chiefs 6
In Kansas City, Missouri, Ken Dorsey threw two touchdown passes and Tim Rattay added one as San Francisco won its first exhibition game under new coach Dennis Erickson. Rattay, who started at quarterback while Jeff Garcia rested his ailing back, was 8-for-9 for 90 yards, including a 39-yard scoring strike to Brandon Lloyd in the second quarter.
Bills 20, Ravens 19
In Baltimore, Antonio Brown returned a punt 87 yards for the decisive touchdown with 3:19 left, and Nate Clements intercepted Chris Redman's pass to set up a score for Buffalo.
Bears 20, Colts 18
In Illinois, Rex Grossman drove Chicago 50 yards in the final 2:39 and Paul Edinger kicked a 38-yard game-winning field goal as time expired for the Bears. Grossman, the Bears' first-round draft pick, was 9-for-21 -- including a 12-yard completion to rookie Bobby Wade on fourth down during the game-winning drive. It was also the Bears debut of quarterback Kordell Stewart, who came to Chicago from Pittsburgh.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with