Haynes King's Walk-Off TD Lifts Panthers Past Cardinals 33-30 in Hall of Fame Game
The undrafted rookie improvised a game-winning scramble as time expired, capping a back-and-forth shootout that also featured a sharp NFL debut from Arizona's Carson Beck.
Haynes King scored on a busted-play scramble as time expired to lift the Carolina Panthers past the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 in the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. "I just didn't tell anybody. I just told everybody to go deep and took off running. I was the only one that knew," King said of the game-winning play.
How did the winning drive unfold?
Facing 3rd-and-14 with 39 seconds left, King scrambled 26 yards up the middle for a first down at Arizona's 17-yard line, then hit tight end Caden Prieskorn for 22 yards on a fake-handoff play. On the final snap, King rolled right looking to throw before improvising and running it in himself from 5 yards out. "When they called it, and he didn't look (at the receiver), I knew he was going to run," receiver David Moore said. Coach Dave Canales credited King's patience on the earlier scramble: "The bottom line is move the chains ... he saw it open up. They had good coverage on it. He took the yards and kept the drive alive."
How did King, an undrafted rookie, end up with the ball late?
Kenny Pickett started the game for Carolina, but King, an undrafted rookie out of Georgia Tech, took over and finished 21-of-34 passing for 180 yards and two touchdowns, adding the game-winner on the ground. Canales downplayed any notion of reinventing his game plan around the moment: "We're not trying to make Haynes anything other than what he is. And so, just letting him kind of grow into that." King called the celebration overwhelming: "I couldn't breathe. But it was amazing, just going out there and being able to celebrate with the guys that you've been [in] OTAs, all training camp with."
What did Arizona get from its own rookie quarterback?
Cardinals third-round pick Carson Beck was efficient in his first pro action, going 15-of-19 for 188 yards and a touchdown for a 125.4 passer rating, including a 49-yard completion to Jalen Brooks and a back-shoulder fade to Simi Fehoko. Arizona deliberately played him through the first half plus the third quarter's opening drive to expose him to an NFL-length halftime. "It feels great to go in and succeed and execute within the offense ... there's always so much room to improve," Beck said. QB coach Mike LaFleur added, "He just gets in and out of the huddle, and he doesn't make it too big ... a good first steppingstone for him."
How did the final result compare to the preview?
Touchdown Week's AI Prediction correctly called Carolina as the winner, projecting a 20-17 final and flagging that backups and rookies, not the presumptive starters, would decide the outcome. That held up: King and Beck combined for every point of a 63-point shootout, well beyond the projected total, in exactly the kind of low-predictability finish the game's "Low" confidence rating was meant to capture.
Players in this story
Sources
- Panthers.com: Rapid Reactions: Panthers win Hall of Fame Game on last-second touchdown from Haynes King
- Panthers.com: Haynes King made the most of the moment in Hall of Fame Game thriller
- ESPN: Rookie QB Carson Beck delivers efficient debut for Cardinals
Cardinals & Panthers betting odds
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