First Call: Bills will play their 1st-teamers vs. Steelers; Browns-Eagles slopfest
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The Pittsburgh Steelers will see some of the Buffalo Bills’ starters on Saturday. It would have been nice to watch some starters at quarterback in the Browns-Eagles game Thursday.
The Pirates play the streaky Twins this weekend. And we remember a hockey play-by-play favorite.
All that in Friday’s “First Call.”
Of like mind
Mike Tomlin says his Steelers starters will get some playing time Saturday against the Buffalo Bills, and the Bills are reciprocating.
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott says quarterback Josh Allen and the rest of the Bills starters will play against the Steelers for at least a portion of the game this weekend.
We'll see the starters in Pittsburgh.
Josh Allen will play in Saturday's preseason game against the Steelers: https://t.co/iXkKBxLSjl pic.twitter.com/QUhUqGV21p
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) August 17, 2023
McDermott says his first-string will play about “a quarter and a half.” The Bills coach believes there’s still value in playing starters during preseason.
“Simply put, it’s to get them ready for the season,” McDermott said via the Bills website.
Bills safety Damar Hamlin is expected to suit up in his hometown. The Pitt product and Pittsburgh Central Catholic grad played in Buffalo’s first preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts. That was his first game action since collapsing on the field after a tackle in January during a “Monday Night Football” game versus the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bills are favored to win the AFC East again. They crushed the Steelers 38-3 in Buffalo last year. The Steelers won in Buffalo 23-16 during the season opener of 2021.
More sports
• Tim Benz: Steelers offensive line better suited to endure injuries they managed to avoid a year ago
• Steelers WR Calvin Austin ready to see what he can do for encore in 2nd preseason game
• Rotating cast of leadoff hitters make mixed 1st impression atop Pirates lineup
Brown out
The Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles played to an 18-18 tie Thursday night.
There is no overtime in the preseason. Mercifully.
The game featured three turnovers, 19 penalties and no starting quarterbacks. Neither Jalen Hurts nor Deshaun Watson played.
Cleveland’s Kellen Mond did have this nifty escape, though.
the escape artist formerly known as @TheKellenMond ????♂️????
????: #CLEvsPHI on @nflnetwork & @WEWS
????: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/35z9Ynd6sL pic.twitter.com/x7gs0Wa46Z— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 18, 2023
For his part, Watson says he wants to play in Cleveland’s preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs on Aug. 26. The Browns are 1-1-1 so far, having played the Hall of Fame Game against the New York Jets to open the season.
Part of the story
The Pirates (54-67) may be out of the National League Central race. But they’ll be part of the script of how the American League Central plays out.
They are playing the division-leading Minnesota Twins for the next three days at Target Field. The Twins hold a 4½-game lead on the second-place Cleveland Guardians.
Minnesota (63-59) has been extremely streaky of late. Coming out of the All-Star Break, the Twinkies won nine of 11 games. Then they lost six of seven.
That got the club to Aug. 3. From that point, the Twins won five in a row, lost four in a row, and have since won three of four.
That brings us to this series against the Pirates who have now lost four of their last six and just got done allowing 19 runs over three games against the New York Mets in Queens.
Andre Jackson gets the start in Game 1 for the Pirates. Pablo Lopez starts for Minnesota.
Appropriate send-off
If you ever watched or listened to a Buffalo Sabres game, you knew the voice of Rick Jeanneret.
The Sabres announced that the NHL play-by-play legend died Thursday.
A statement from the family of Rick Jeanneret. pic.twitter.com/0vnbXAxytN
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) August 18, 2023
TribLIVE’s Seth Rorabaugh found this clip of Jeanneret calling the 500th goal of former Penguins winger Luc Robitaille.
Rest in peace, Rick Jeanneret. On Jan. 7, 1999, Jeanneret called Luc Robitaille's 500th career goal when his Buffalo Sabres visited the @LAKings at the Great Western Forum. Jeanneret's call was the only TV feed that was available for Luc's milestone goal.#LAKings #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/M0YdjmnsyB
— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) August 18, 2023
Jeanneret was a local legend to Western New York hockey fans. He will be missed by many.