Cam Ward — Week 3: Intercepted in the End Zone
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Ward completed 23 of 36 throws for 181 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and was not sacked. Down 12–7 with 24 seconds left, first and goal at the Giants 7, his throw for Elic Ayomanor was intercepted in the end zone by Jevon Holland, the largest win-probability swing of the game. He threw for 140 of the yards after halftime, in a 12–7 loss to the Giants.
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12 to seven, Giants, 24 seconds left, first and goal at the New York seven, just after the Giants used their last timeout. Cam Ward threw short left for Elic Ayomanor, and Jevon Holland intercepted it in the end zone for a touchback. −4.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −46 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Tennessee's chance went from about 49 percent to about three. It was the largest swing on any play of the game. A Giants unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play was marked off from the 20, and Jameis Winston knelt once to end it. The drive had come from the Tennessee 23 with three oh three left: 12 yards to Wan'Dale Robinson, 18 to Tony Pollard on third and seven, Ward's own two-yard run up the middle on third and one, nine to Robinson on third and 10, a Giants encroachment on fourth and one, and 11 to Ayomanor to the seven.
The line: 23 of 36, a hundred 81 yards, one touchdown, one interception, no sacks, −6.5 expected points on 36 pass plays. Seven of 13 for 41 yards before halftime, 16 of 23 for a hundred 40 after. Three throws the play-by-play labels deep — 23, 27 29 yards in the air — and all three fell incomplete. The touchdown was third and four at the New York four with five 39 left, down 12 to nothing, short right to Robinson. On third down he threw 12 times, completed seven and converted four, and converted the one third down he ran on. The fourth-down throw at the New York seven with a minute 11 left in the third, to Gunnar Helm, fell incomplete and ended a 12-play drive. The one time he went down, for four yards in the fourth quarter, the Giant who brought him down was flagged for a face mask and the play came off.
11 of his throws went to Robinson, nine to Carnell Tate, four each to Pollard and Helm, three to Ayomanor, two to Daniel Bellinger, one each to Chimere Dike and Calvin Ridley, and one had no receiver. Tennessee's six first-half possessions produced five punts and a missed 59-yard field goal. Its three after halftime reached the New York seven, the end zone, and the New York seven. The Titans' hundred 81 net passing yards ranked 20-first of the 28 teams that had played by Sunday night.
Back in June the preview put Ward on the watchlist: a rookie season of 55 sacks, per ESPN's accounting, and a bet that a rebuilt offense would fix them. Week 1 had three sacks and Week 2 two, and that episode called the bet still open. Sunday he was not sacked once across 36 pass plays, and his first interception of the season came on the last of them. Three games: 55 completions on 88 throws, 504 yards, two touchdown passes, one interception, five sacks. The sack half of the June question is moving the right way; the yardage, 5.0 a throw on Sunday, has not followed. Tennessee is at the Ravens on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Cam Ward's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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