Marcus Mariota debuts as AFC offensive player of the week

Mariota also finished the contest with a ideal passer rating (158.3). Don’t let him slide too far off the radar, particularly against a Saints defense that ranked No. 25 against the pass last season.

If the first game of their careers was anything to judge by, the Titans certainly got the better start with their franchise quarterback as Mariota threw for 4 touchdowns, and 209 yards in just 13 completions on 16 attempts.

Oh, by the way, the Titans won 42-14. Geniuses. “By the second half of the first game, I’m playing (because of injuries to Sam Bradford and Shaun Hill)”.

In Mariota’s first game, we saw a player who was poised, accurate, and efficient – exactly the same player we saw at Oregon who topped the grading at PFF last season. That, however, is often the nature of the sports beast. Leaf threw only one more touchdown pass that season, and we know how he turned out. They were Pac-12 rivals, and Orchard boasts a strip-sack previous year during a game at Utah. The kid looks real good.

Winston and Bortles will have plenty of time to sort it out. The more the 49ers went away from that formula and toward a traditional offense, the worse Kaepernick played. Or is he as good as he looks.

Cleveland had just completed the largest road comeback in National Football League history, in an epic 29-28 win over the Tennessee Titans.

In addition to helping the Titans end a 10-game losing streak, Mariota improved to 2-0 in head-to-head meetings against teams led by Winston, the 2013 Heisman victor . So Whisenhunt can just point back to a year ago if he sees anyone not focused enough.

It is a scenario reminiscent of what the Washington Redskins faced in the rookie season of quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2012. The Browns wanted him, but the Titans wanted more than the 12th and 19th picks (which the Browns also owned) and the Browns werent willing to give up more than that. Mariota was 5-of-5 on such throws for 114 yards and a touchdown. Two years later Buffalo was rolling behind the “K-Gun” offense and the Bills were playoff fixtures on their way to becoming perennial Super Bowl runners-up.

Over the previous 10 seasons, two-point plays have been successful 47 per cent of the time, but that figure has been an even 50 per cent over the last five years.

He was shut out in the first one and injured in the second. He was the backup to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, another Hall of Famer. The issue flared up in practice August 23, forcing him to miss the final two preseason games.

A star was born, or so it seemed.

In the early days of his pro career, Mariota has proven to be a quick study.

“Manziel and Mariota met as prized high school recruits at Oregon”™s football camp. “I didn’t find any in college”, he said.

Back in 1951, the New York Giants baseball team had a rookie centerfielder named Willie Mays.

“As long as I’m the manager of the Giants, you are my centerfielder”, Durocher told Mays.

“That was awesome. To go to that level and play that efficiently”.