This is what everyone was waiting for from Willis McGahee.
After 19 months of recuperation and countless questions about the strength of his left knee, the Buffalo Bills running back finally provided some answers. McGahee had the go-ahead score on a 1-yard run in his NFL preseason debut, helping the Bills to a 16-6 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
McGahee finished with 13 carries for 58 yards and two catches for 25 yards, continuing to show that he's ready to play after missing all of his rookie season recovering from reconstructive knee surgery.
The Broncos (0-2), coming off last week's 20-17 loss to Washington, continued to struggle on offense. Starter Jake Plummer went 3-of-11 for 40 yards passing and two interceptions, giving him three in two preseason games.
Most eyes were on McGahee.
The crowd cheered when he first took the field, lining up alongside starter Travis Henry late in the first quarter. Fans were already on their feet, cheering in anticipation just before McGahee scored. He followed two blockers off left tackle and put the Bills ahead 10-3 with 4:37 left in the second quarter.
"It felt great to just get into the end zone. That was a goal of mine," McGahee said. "It was really good to hear all of those cheers. It means a lot."
McGahee had a big role in the 13-play, 59-yard scoring drive, getting seven carries for 15 yards and a 9-yard reception.
This is what everyone hoped to expect from McGahee. He's the former Miami star the Bills selected 23rd overall in the 2003 draft, knowing that he would need at least a year to recover after he was hurt in his final college game, the national championship against Ohio State.
Buffalo's Rian Lindell rounded out the scoring with three field goals, including a 42-yarder to put the game away with 2:10 left. Rookie quarterback J.P. Losman, the second of Buffalo's two first-round picks last April, had an encouraging performance, finishing 5-of-5 for 55 yards passing. He also ran three times for 37 yards.
The Bills (1-0) also got a strong outing from their defense, which generated two turnovers and three sacks.
Plummer struggled in Denver's first two drives, both ending with interceptions. And he didn't get much help as his receivers dropped several easy catches, including Ashley Lelie, whose bobble led to Terrence McGee's interception.
Plummer did orchestrate a 70-yard drive to set up Jason Elam's 34-yard field goal on his third and final series of the game. But Plummer could be faulted for the stalling of the drive when he failed to get rid of the ball and was sacked for a 5-yard loss inside the Bills' 30.
Elam also kicked a 30-yarder to round out Denver's scoring.
Titans 24 Cleveland 3
Chris Brown gave the Tennessee Titans an early reason not to miss Eddie George.
Brown ran for 46 yards on only six carries, and Steve McNair threw for a touchdown as the Titans downed Cleveland 24-3 in an exhibition opener.
Brown, the Titans' third-round draft pick in 2003, missed the entire preseason last year because of a strained hamstring. But he averaged 7.7 yards per carry in his first work as the Titans' starting tailback, the job held by George -- the team's career leading rusher who was released last month in a pay dispute.
McNair would have been perfect if one pass hadn't bounced off the hands of Drew Bennett and into Daylon McCutcheon's arms for an interception. McNair was 5-of-6 for 54 yards, including a 21-yard touchdown to Derrick Mason.
Jeff Garcia and Kellen Winslow could have had smoother debuts with the Browns.
The Titans greeted Cleveland's new quarterback by sacking him twice in his first three plays and forcing a quick punt. Garcia was 3-of-5 for 23 yards in three series, and he set up Phil Dawson's 50-yard field goal with a 10-yard toss to Winslow.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but