Quarterbacks John Skelton and Jake Locker were injured in season openers Sunday, while Rams tackle Rodger Saffold was carted off the field with a neck injury.
Tom Brady might have sustained a broken nose at Tennessee, but he didn’t miss any plays.
Skelton won the Cardinals’ starting job in the preseason, just as Locker did in Tennessee. But Skelton was sidelined with a right ankle injury in the fourth quarter of a win over Seattle.
Locker also went out in the final period, leaving a loss to New England with a left shoulder problem after making a tackle.
Saffold had movement in his arms and legs after hurting his neck and will undergo a CT scan. He crumpled awkwardly after disengaging from Lions safety John Wendling on a long St. Louis touchdown pass.
Skelton was injured when the pocket collapsed around him and Seattle’s Richard Sherman collided with another player into his leg. Skelton was down for several minutes before being loaded onto a cart and taken to the locker room.
Locker, a second-year quarterback in his first start, tried tackling Patriots safety Patrick Chung at the end of a 49-yard fumble return. The eighth pick overall in the 2011 draft from the University of Washington walked to the sideline holding his left arm up against his body. But he quickly was throwing a ball on the sideline while veteran Matt Hasselbeck went into the game after officials overturned the original play as an incompletion. Locker tried to talk his way back onto the field.
“I felt like I could go back in, and I let them know that,” Locker said. “The medical staff made the decision they did.”
Brady was sacked by Kamerion Wimbley in the second quarter. Trainers taped up his nose, and he finished off the game by throwing for 236 yards and two touchdowns.
“I need some scars,” Brady said, joking about the white bandage covering his nose and marring his usual look.
FIRST FEMALE REF MAKES NFL DEBUT
Shannon Eastin used her left hand to tuck her pony tail under her cap after the national anthem and got ready for work.
Eastin became the first woman to be an official in an NFL regular-season game, working as the line judge in the Rams-Lions matchup in Detroit.
“It’s a great milestone,” Detroit coach Jim Schwartz said afterward. “But we didn’t think about it all during the game.”
That’s probably just the way she — and the league — liked it.
Eastin is among the replacement officials hired by the league while the regular officials are locked out. Replacement officials are working games for the first time in 11 years.
The 42-year-old resident of Tempe, Ariz., worked an NFL preseason game and has been a referee in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference — college football’s second-highest level — during her 16 years as an official.
SCHAUB EXTENDS DEAL
Texans quarterback Matt Schaub signed a four-year contract extension. Terms were not disclosed.
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