Cal Sports Report

Ex-Cal QB Jared Goff Sharp in His Lions Debut

Former Golden Bears QB Davis Webb has a productive game for Buffalo. Jaylinn Hawkins, Evan Weaver record tackles in their preseason games.

Jake Curtis

Ex-Cal QB Jared Goff Sharp in His Lions Debut
Ex-Cal QB Jared Goff Sharp in His Lions Debut /

Jared Goff and Davis Webb, two former Cal quarterbacks who had success in Berkeley under Sonny Dykes, looked sharp for opposing teams in Friday’s NFL preseason game between the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills, which was won by the Bills 16-15.

Buffalo’s Webb logged more playing time than Detroit’s Goff, who played only the first quarter. But the focus was on Goff, who made his debut as the Lions’ starting quarterback on Friday after being acquired from the Rams in an offseason deal that sent Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles.

Goff got off to a rocky start, but was productive after that.

He finished 7-for-9 for 56 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions and a 92.6 passer rating. He was sacked once for 11 yards and scrambled once for 4 yards.

Goff’s first competitive throw as a Lions quarterback was knocked down and nearly intercepted, and Goff was sacked for a big loss on third down of that first series.

But on the second series, Goff completed his first seven passes for 56 yards in an 18-play, 70-yard drive that ate of 9:54 of the clock and yielded a field goal.

Goff completed a key 20-yard pass to Tyrell Williams on second-and-15 during that drive, as seen here:

Goff’s only incompletion of that drive came on his final pass of the possession, when he barely missed throwing a 14-yard touchdown pass to Tyrell Williams.

That time-consuming drive is probably what the Lions will try to do in the regular season. Undermanned in terms of talent, Detroit needs to keep the score down, stay close and hope something good happens in the fourth quarter.

Goff's postgame press conference:

Goff did not play in the second quarter, but Webb, who succeeded Goff as Cal’s starting quarterback in 2016, did play in the second quarter, when he led the Bills to two scores.

Listed as Buffalo’s third-string quarterback, Webb completed 11 of 16 passes for 90 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a 103.6 passer rating.

Webb’s first drive as the Bills quarterback came in the second quarter, and he led an 83-yard touchdown drive that consumed 9:10 and ended with Webb’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Devin Singletary, as seen here:

Webb later led a 17-yard drive that resulted in a field goal just before the end of the first half.

Davis also scrambled twice for 26 yards in the first half, demonstrating that he can do what Bills starting quarterback Josh Allen can do. 

Davis Webb on the move. Photo by Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports
Davis Webb on the move. Photo by Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports

Allen did not play Thursday, and Mitchell Trubisky got the start for Buffalo. Trubisky completed just 1 of 2 pass attempts for 10 yards and did not get the Bills any points in the first half.

What was interesting is that Webb – not Trubisky – was the Bills quarterback to start the second half.

He completed 5-of-7 passes in the second half before being replaced by Jake Fromm.

Also, former Cal wide receiver Chad Hansen, who signed with the Lions in the offseason, did not get any plying time against the Bills, either on offense or on specil teams. He is not listed among the top three at either wide receiver position on the Lions' depth chart, so he faces an uphill climb to make the 53-man roster..

Jaylinn Hawkins Gets a Sack for Falcons

Former Cal standout Jaylinn Hawkins recorded three solo tackles in the Atlanta Falcons' 23-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Hawkins recorded one of his tackles while covering a punt, but the other two came when he was playing safety.  One was a sack of Titans' quarterback Logan Woodside in the second quarter, seen here:

Former Golden Bears wide receiver Trevor Davis recently signed with the Falcons, but he did not record any statistics on Friday. Davis' ability as a punt and kick returner seemed to be his best shot at making the Falcons' roster, but Avery Williams and Chris Rowland performed the return duties for Atlanta on Friday.

Evan Weaver Records Three Tackles

Evan Weaver, who was an All-America linebacker at Cal in 2019, made three tackles, including one solo stop, for the Arizona Cardinals in 19-16 victory over the Cowboys.

All three of Weavers tackles came during a 14-play Dallas drive that started at the end of the third quarter and resulted in a touchdown.

In Dallas' final series, Weavers was involved in breaking up a pass attempt, which was a plus because pass coverage is considered Weaver's shortcoming.

A sixth-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft, Weaver did not make the Cardinals' 53-man roster last season and spent the yer on Arizona's practice squad. He is currently listed as third-string at one of the two inside linebacker spots.

Another former Golden Bear, Ian Bunting, is listed as the Cardinals' fourth-team tight end on the depth chart, but he did not record any statistics on Friday.

Onetime Cal punter Bryan Anger, now with the Cowboys, had one punt in the game and it covered 48 yards.

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Cover photo of Jared Goff by Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports

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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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