Titans QB Will Levis throws FOUR touchdowns in NFL debut
The Will Levis Experiment is off to a blazing hot start in Nashville.
During his first career NFL start on Sunday afternoon for the Tennessee Titans, Levis hooked up with wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins three times for touchdowns against the Atlanta Falcons before capping off his unbelievable performance with a fourth touchdown throw to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine down the stretch. Just as important, the Titans came away with the win, 28-23.
Levis finished his first-ever start with a stat line of 19-29 passing for 238 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions while only getting sacked once. He finished with a quarterback rating of 130.5 and also ran the ball seven times for an additional 11 yards.
Levis kicked off his professional debut by completing seven of his first eight passes, one of which included a 47-yard touchdown bomb to Hopkins that put the Titans ahead 7-3 near the end of the first quarter.
A quarter later, Levis and Hopkins once again linked up, this time for a 17-yard score inside the redzone to make it 14-3 Tennessee with under six minutes before the halftime break.
The last Levis-to-Hopkins score came near the end of the third period when Levis launched another deep ball to Hopkins, who dusted his defender and walked right into the endzone for a 61-yard touchdown.
Levis’ fourth and final touchdown of the afternoon put the finishing touches on Tennessee’s victory. He connected with Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a 33-yard score that made it 28-16 in favor of the Titans with just a hair under seven minutes left in the game. Levis got knocked to the ground after the throw, but all he could do was throw his hands up with a big ole grin on his face.
According to UK statistician Corey Price, Levis became the first former Kentucky quarterback to throw three touchdown passes in an NFL regular season game since Tim Couch did so for the Cleveland Browns against the Cincinnati Bengals back in Nov. 2002. Even better, Levis is the first former UK quarterback to throw four of them since George Blanda did so for the Oakland Raiders against the Denver Broncos in Nov. 1968.
It took a while for Levis to finally make his debut after patiently waiting behind starter Ryan Tannehill and reserve Malik Willis. Tannehill recently went down with an ankle injury while Willis has been hit-or-miss during his limited action as Tannehill’s backup. Coming into Sunday with a 2-4 record, head coach Mike Vrabel elected that it was finally time to throw out the Titans’ 2023 second-round draft pick.
It paid off in the form of the team’s third win of the season and possibly something special at the quarterback position in Nashville.
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