Cal Sports Report

Ex-Cal Teammates Keenan Allen, Marvin Jones Jr. Star in NFL Week 3

Aaron Rodgers, another former Bears' standout, wins classic QB battle. Several other former Cal players had productive games in the pros on Sunday

Jake Curtis

Ex-Cal Teammates Keenan Allen, Marvin Jones Jr. Star in NFL Week 3
Ex-Cal Teammates Keenan Allen, Marvin Jones Jr. Star in NFL Week 3 /

Former Cal teammates Keenan Allen and Marvin Jones Jr., who were the Golden Bears' starting wide receivers in 2010 and 2011, had NFL performances to be proud of on Sunday.

Allen had a monster game, although his Los Angeles Chargers dropped a 21-16 decision to the Carolina Panthers. Allen had 13 receptions for 132 yards and a touchdown, and along the way he moved into third place on the Chargers' alltime receptions list.

With his seventh catch of the game, Allen moved past Kellen Winslow on the franchise list for career catches.  He started the day with 535 receptions and now has 548, leaving him 38 catches behind Charlie Joiner, who is second on the Chargers' list. Joiner is in the NFL Hall of Fame and Antonio Gates, who is No. 1, certainly will be in the Hall when he's eligible.  That's pretty good company.

**Allen joins some exclusive company with his 542nd catch

**Allen makes a touchdown catch

However, the Chargers' chances of pulling out the win ended when their trick play on the final snap went awry.  

The play started at the Carolina 28-yard line with six seconds left. Allen caught a Justin Herbert pass at about the 18 and tried to lateral back to Austin Ekeler, who was trailing on the play.  But Ekeler could not handle the lateral and the game ended.

**The Chargers' final play

“It happened a lot faster than it did in practice, obviously in a game-time situation,” Allen said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Honestly, we just have to execute. I think it’s a walk-in touchdown. I could’ve put it more in front of him.”

Other former Cal players also performed well Sunday:

---Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. had an impact when it mattered most.

Fantasy gurus were predicting that Jones would not do much against the Cardinals' pass defense, but the former Golden Bears star came up with two of the biggest catches of the day as the Lions rallied to upset the Arizona Cardinals 26-23.

Jones finished the day with just three receptions for 51 yards, but two of his receptions, each for 20 yards, came on the Lions' final drive of the game, which ended with Matt Prater's 39-yard field goal on the game's final play.

**Here is Jones' final reception of the day. He broke a tackle and completed a 20-yard reception with less than a minute left to set up the game-winning field goal

Photo by Joe Camporeale - USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Joe Camporeale - USA TODAY Sports

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Jones' first reception on that final series was a diving catch that moved the ball from the Detroit 22-yard line to the 42. His second catch of the possession came on a short pass that Jones turned into a 20-yard play by breaking a tackle and advancing to the Arizona 18-yard line before Detroit called timeout with 12 seconds to go.

After Lions QB Matthew Stafford ate up eight seconds by losing three yards on a run, Prater kicked the game-winner.

It makes you wonder how Cal had a record of only 12-13 (7-11 in the conference) over the two seasons Allen and Jones were the Bears' starting wideouts.

**The game-winning field goal by Matt Prater

---Aaron Rodgers' bid for a third MVP award stayed on course, as he completed 21-of-32 passes for 283 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 124.9 passer rating to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 37-30 win over Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

"We put up 37, which is pretty amazing with the squad they have," Rodgers said.

And Rodgers did it with his best receiver, Davante Adams, on the sidelines in street clothes because of an injury.

Rodgers' best play may have been a hard count that drew two Saints penalties on a thrid-down play during the Packers' final touchdown drive.

Rodgers showed his tremendous arm strength with couple high-arcing rainbow completions for big gains in the victory that gave Gren Bay a 3-0 record.

**Rodgers shows his strong arm

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**Rodgers tosses a touchdown pass

---Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan had four tackles, including one solo stop, against the Packers, but he is still looking for his first sack of the season.  He has been selected to the Pro Bowl each of the past three season, collecting 40.5 sacks over that span, including a career-high 15.5 last season.

---Quarterback Jared Goff had a productive day for the Los Angeles Rams, but Rams lost to the Bills 35-32.

Goff went 23-for-32 for 321 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for a passer rating of 111.6. He was also sacked twice.

**Goff TD pass to Robert Woods

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**Goff scoring pass to Cooper Kupp

Bills quarterback Josh Allen was 24-for-33 for 311, four touchdowns, one pick and a 128.9 passer rating. He threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Tyler Kroft with 15 seconds left.

---Altanta Falcons rookie Jaylinn Hawkins got some meaningful playing time as a defensive back on Sunday.  He had three tackles, including two solo stops, and two of his tackles came while playing safety in the first half. 

Hawkins may have been a little too amped up in his first signficiant stint on defense as he also was hit with an unneccesary roughness penalty on Chicago's touchdown drive in the second quarter.

The Falcons blew a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter, losing to the Bears 30-26.

---Steelers nose tackle Tyson Alalu is having one of his best seasons, and he had one solo tackle and knocked down a pass in Pittsburgh's 28-21 victory over the Houston Texans this week.

The Texans managed just 29 rushing yards and 1.9 yards per rushing attempt, and that does not happen unless the opposing nose tackle is disrupting things up front.

---New York Giants linebacker Devante Downs made the second start of his career and second of the season on Sunday against San Francisco, and he had four tackles, including one solo hit, in the 36-9 loss to the 49ers.

---Philadelphia Eagles tight end Richard Rodgers had his first two receptions of the season and had 15 receiving yards in the Eagles' 23-23 tie with the Bengals.

---Eagles wide receivers DeSean Jackson had a disappointing day with just two catches for 11 yards.  Several Fantasy experts were predicting a big day for Jackson against the Bengals.

---Dolphins running back Patrick Laird played one snap but did not record any statistics in Miami's 31-13 victory over the Jaguars on Thursday.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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