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Cal in NFL: Two TDs for Marvin Jones; Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff Lose

Ex-Cal star Keenan Allen gets some nice stats, Ashtyn Davis gets a start, Tyson Alualu gets hurt, Patrick Mekari gets playing time, Cameron Jordan gets a sack, Mitchell Schwartz gets another day off and Richard Rodgers gets no targets
Jake Curtis|
Cal in NFL: Two TDs for Marvin Jones; Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff Lose
Cal in NFL: Two TDs for Marvin Jones; Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff Lose

Former Cal players Keenan Allen and Marvin Jones Jr. had productive NFL games on Sunday, while quarterback Jared Goff struggled, and Aaron Rodgers nearly rallied his team to victory.

The bottom line, though, is that all four of those ex-Bears suffered losses.

Among the few ex-Cal players who came up with wins in Week 8 of the NFL season were Cameron Jordan and Richad Rodgers, although Rodgers did not have the impact Fantasy experts expected.

Let's take a look at what happened to the ex-Golden Bears.

---Detroit Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. caught just three passes for 39 yards, but two of his receptions were for touchdowns -- his second and third receiving touchdowns of the season.

Here is Jones' first score:

And here is Jones' second TD catch:

But it was not enough in Detroit's 41-21 loss to Indianapolis.

---Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen had nine catches for 67 yards and a touchdown against the Broncos. but the Chargers lost 31-30 when Denver scored a touchdown on the final play of the game and added the game-winning extra point.

Here is Allen's first-quarter TD reception:

---Ram quarterback Jared Goff had a tough day, completing 35-of-61 passes for 355 yards, one TD pass, two interceptions and a 65.9 passer rating in a 28-17 loss to the Dolphins.

Both of his interceptions came in the first half, when Miami took a 28-7 lead. He was also sacked twice, one of which caused a fumble that was returned 88 yards by the Dolphins for a touchdown in the first half.

Here is one of those picks:

And here is the costly sack and fumble:

---Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a good first half, completing 11 of 12 passes with two touchdown throws on the Packers' only two possessions of the first half, which ended tied.

Things were different in the second half. He finished 27-of-41 for 291 yards, three scores, no interceptions and a 110.9 passer rating, but Green Bay lost to the Vikings 28-22.

Rodgers got the Packers to the Minnesota 41-yard line with 13 second left, but he was sacked and fumbled on the final play when he was trying to set up a Hail Mary situation.

Here is Rodgers' first TD pass to Davante Adams:

And Rodgers' second TD pass to Adams is here:

Here is the final play of the game:

---Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan made his 136th consecutive start, the third-longest active streak in the NFL, and he had three tackles, one sack and two quarterback hits in New Orleans' 26-23 overtime win over the Bears.

Jordan has just 2.5 sacks this season, but the Saints are 5-2 and have won four straight games.

Jordan did not get any sacks in the overtime, but he applied pressure to Bears quarterback Nick Foles on several plays to ruin Chicago's bid to score in the extra period.

---Eagles tight end Richard Rodgers was a big favorite of Fantasy experts this week, who urged Fantasy players to start him against the Cowboys. That was based on his big performance in the previous game, a weak Dallas defense, and the fact that the two Eagles tight ends ahead of Rodgers on the depth chart were injured.

But Philadelphia tight end Dallas Goedert, whose status was questionable early this week, returned to action, minimizing Rodgers' playing time. So after hauling in six passes for 85 yards against the Giants last week, Rodgers did not have a single catch in the Eagles' 23-9 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. 

Rodgers wasn't even targeted in Sunday night's game, and Goedert was only targeted once, a pass he caught for a 15-yard gain.

Other Week 8 NFL performances by ex-Cal players

---Jets rookie safety Ashtyn Davis was in the starting lineup against the Chiefs because of an injury to Bradley McDougald, who was placed on injured reserve this past week.

Davis had four tackles, including three solo stops, but the Jets remained winless with their 35-9 loss to the Chiefs.

Davis (32) came in a split second too late to stop this Tyreek Hill touchdown catch:

---Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle Tyson Alualu left the game against the Ravens in the first quarter with a knee injury. CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz noted at the time that Alualu is “an underrated member” of the Steelers’ defense, and color man Tony Romo mentioned Alualu “has been outstanding,” suggesting Alualu’s absence hurt the Steelers’ interior defense against the run. 

Pittsburgh won the game 28-24 to stay unbeaten.

---Ravens guard Patrick Mekari played much of the game against Pittsburgh following injuries to two Baltimore offensive linmen. 

He helped the Ravens rush for 265 yards against a Steelers defense that ranked second in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing 68.8 running yards per game.

Mekari (65) provided protection on the final play of the game, when Lamar Jackson threw an incompletion in the end zone, as seen here:

---Falcons rookie safety Jaylinn Hawkins played 10 snaps, all on special teams, in the Thursday night victory over Carolina.

---Chiefs offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz missed his second straight start after going through his entire high school, college and NFL career without missing a single start.

Before last week he had started every game of his NFL career -- 134 straight regular-season starts, which at the time tied with another former Golden Bears player, Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan, for the third-longest active streak of consecutive starts.

That does not include Schwartz's seven postseason starts, giving him a total of 141 straight starts as an NFL player.

Schwartz started all 51 games at Cal after a redshirt freshman season, and he started all 40 games at Palisades Academy High School from his freshman season, according to his high school coach, Kelly Loftus, and even played quarterback for a few snaps as a high school freshman.

That’s 232 consecutive starts until he sat out last week, and he was out again against the Jets because of a back injury.

---Cowboys long-snapper L.P. Ladouceur played in his 245th consecutive regular-season NFL game (254 including playoffs). That is the longest active streak in the NFL, and the seventh-longest regular-season streak alltime.

---Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson is out indefinitely with a knee injury, linebacker Devante Downs of the Giants faces Tampa Bay on Monday night, and punter Bryan Anger (Texans) and long snapper Nick Sundberg (Washington) had byes this week.

 

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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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