NFL Season Kicked Off With 2024 Hall Of Fame Game
Okay so it’s not officially the start of the NFL regular season but it’s better than nothing right? However, the NFL season kicked off with the 2024 Hall of Fame Game between the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears. What everyone was waiting for was to see how the kickoff returns would go. Earlier this year, the NFL Competition Committee made some changes to the play that raised lots of eyebrows.
The purpose of the change is to create a new form of a free kick play that is designed to:
- Resemble a typical scrimmage play by aligning players on both teams closer together and restricting movement to reduce space and speed.
- Promote more returns.
But of course, it’s not that simple, there are more details involved when it comes to alignment, the landing zone, and other miscellaneous details. To read up on it for yourself, just click here.
So on the first kickoff of the game, the Chicago Bears kicked off from their 35, 60 yards to Houston’s 5 yard line. Steven Sims returned it to Houston’s 26 for 21 yards. It was weird seeing the two teams lined up so close together. But other than that it looked like business as usual. The Texans went on to score a touchdown. Although the starting QB’s weren’t playing, the backup players still put together a nice drive with a good mix of the pass and run.
The Bears punted on their first possession, looking somewhat out of sorts. But they shook off their jitters and scored a touchdown on their second possession.There wasn’t anything special about their kickoff either but with the change, the players at least weren’t running at top speed towards each other. The Texans were up 17-14 at halftime.
NFL Season Kicked Off With 2024 Hall Of Fame Game
Some of the standout players of the game were RB Cam Akers, Texans and WR Collin Johnson, Bears. There were multiple kickoffs and the average return was 20 yards and the average starting line was about the 25.5 yard line. For the most part they were clean until the third quarter. The Bears didn’t catch the ball and it was recovered by the Texans.
The game was delayed late in the third quarter due to a heavy rainstorm and lightening, Bears were up 17-21. That was the final score as the game was not resumed.
As a reminder these are the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductees:
Dwight Freeney, Randy Gradishar, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Steve McMichael, Julius Peppers, and Patrick Willis. Steve McMichael was not able to be there in person and was represented by his wife Misty McMichael.
You can catch the enshrinement ceremony on Saturday, August 3 on ESPN and NFL Network.
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