Cam Ward — Week 2: Two One-Yard Touchdown Runs
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Ward completed 13 of 20 throws for 183 yards with no touchdown passes and no interceptions, and ran for both Tennessee touchdowns from a yard out, on fourth and one and third and one. Both throws labeled deep were complete, 41 yards to Elic Ayomanor and 25 to Calvin Ridley. A 9-yard sack on first and goal with 2:37 left preceded the field goal, in a 24–20 loss to the Eagles.
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10 to 17, Eagles, a minute oh three left in the third quarter, third and goal at the Philadelphia one. Cam Ward scrambled around left end for the touchdown. +1.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 11.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. The kick tied the game at 17 and finished a 12-play, 69-yard drive on which Ward completed all four of his throws for 52 yards and converted a third and one with a run up the middle. His first touchdown also came from the one: fourth and one at the Philadelphia one, four 28 left in the first quarter, nothing to nothing, up the middle, +2.2 expected points, four plays after Amani Hooker's 92-yard interception return. On the snap before it he had scrambled four yards on third and five and been pushed out at the one.
The line: 13 completions on 20 throws, a hundred 83 yards, no touchdown passes, no interceptions, two sacks for 14 yards, and −0.1 expected points on 22 pass plays. Five of nine for 63 before halftime, eight of 11 for a hundred 20 after. Four runs for seven yards, two touchdowns, three first downs, +4.1 expected points — two runs up the middle and two scrambles, and the running was worth more than the passing for the second week in a row. On third down he threw six times, completed three and converted two, and converted two of three with his legs. The two throws the play-by-play labels deep were both complete: 25 yards to Calvin Ridley in the third quarter, and first and 10 at the Tennessee 35 with four 31 left in the fourth, tied at 17, deep right to Elic Ayomanor, 16 yards in the air and 41 in all, pushed out at the Philadelphia 24. +2.8 expected points and 12.3 points of win probability, his largest gain by both measures.
The play that cost the most came at the end of that same drive. Tyjae Spears had just run 27 yards on third and 22 to the Philadelphia nine. First and goal, two 37 left, tied: Jalen Carter sacked Ward for nine. −1.7 expected points, the worst figure on any Tennessee play. Two runs later Joey Slye kicked a 33-yard field goal with two minutes left, a three-point lead instead of seven, and Philadelphia went 65 yards for the touchdown. Ward got the ball back with nine seconds left, hit Carnell Tate for 15 to midfield, and threw incomplete with four seconds left.
Back in June the preview put Ward on the watchlist — the 20-fourth quarterback off the board at pick one 45, nine spots above where his rookie production ranked, a bet that a rebuilt offense would fix 55 sacks — and it said to watch the sack rate first, and the designed quarterback runs as the quiet floor. Week 1 was three sacks, a hundred 40 yards on 32 throws, and five deep throws that all fell incomplete; that episode said to watch whether a deep ball landed. Sunday two of two did, the yards per throw went from 4.4 to 9.2, and his legs produced two touchdowns. It was also 20 throws, no touchdown pass, and the one sack that mattered. Five sacks in two games, one good passing day out of two. The bet is still open. Tennessee is at the Giants on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Cam Ward's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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