Sam LaPorta makes 45-yard grab for first career NFL touchdown in Falcons-Lions game

The terrific start to Sam LaPorta’s NFL career continued in Week 3 as the Detroit Lions tight end caught his first touchdown pass as a pro.

Detroit QB Jared Goff took a play-action dropback about 15 yards deep and uncorked a beautiful and on-target ball to LaPorta, who was striding towards the Falcons end zone with absolutely nobody in sight. Of course, he secured the catch and strolled right in for six to break a 3-3 tie in the NFC matchup.

Here was the clip:

Sam LaPorta guy is pretty good isn’t he pic.twitter.com/tLiRu2h45E

— Joel Moran (@joelvmoran) September 24, 2023

After trading away a different former Iowa tight end, TJ Hockenson, last November, the Lions picked up a new Hawkeye alumnus at the TE spot in Sam LaPorta, who they drafted with the No. 3 pick of the second round in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Through two games, LaPorta looks worth the investment, as he racked up 10 catches on 11 targets for 102 yards and six first downs through the team’s first two games. Then, in the second half of game No. 3, LaPorta got loose for the 45-yard bomb to cross the goal line for the first time in his professional career. What a start for the big man!

Current Iowa TE suffers significant injury

Without LaPorta on the roster any longer, the situation at tight end has become pretty dire for the Hawkeyes. This past week, ahead of the Penn State game, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz confirmed a report on Tuesday that tight end Luke Lachey will be out for the foreseeable future after suffering a leg injury.

The Hawkeyes leader took the podium to provide the media with some injury updates ahead of Iowa’s showdown with Penn State, where he touched on Lachey’s injury.

“I feel most badly for him obviously. He’s the person most affected. Just an unfortunate development, but he’ll be fine here in time. It’s a significant injury, so he’s going to be out for quite awhile here,” Ferentz said, via Tom Kakert of Hawkeye Report.

Like Lachey has caught ten passes for 131 yards on the season thus far. While he wasn’t lighting up the score-sheet, his absence will be felt on offense for the Hawkeyes.

Without Lachey out at TE, the Iowa offense sputtered to a grinding halt vs. Penn State.

Iowa ran six plays on their first drive thanks to a nice third down completion from QB Cade McNamara. However, they would punt on their seventh play not knowing that it would be their longest drive of the game. The Hawkeye offense trotted back out there five more times in the first half, fumbling on drive No. 2 before going three-and-out and punting on the next four possessions.

Things didn’t improve in the second half, as Iowa sandwiched two more three-and-out punts between a drive where they fumbled on their first play. Then, on their final possession, the Hawkeyes coughed the ball up one more time for good measure. That left the Iowa offense with just 76 total yards on 33 snaps for the day. Meanwhile, Penn State ran up a 31-nothing score while gaining 397 yards on 97 plays — one of the largest snap differences in the history of the sport.