NFL Exhibition Roundup : Eagles Beat Lions in Ryan’s Debut, 17-9

Second-year quarterback Randall Cunningham ran 17 yards for a third-quarter touchdown Friday night to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a 17-9 victory over the Detroit Lions at Pontiac, Mich., in the exhibition opener for both teams.

Cunningham, who entered the game in the third quarter, gave the Eagles a 14-9 lead when he faked a pass and raced into the end zone untouched.

Paul McFadden kicked a 29-yard field goal with two minutes left to help seal the victory in Buddy Ryan’s debut as Eagle coach.

“I’m happy with the outcome, but we’re still a long ways off,” Ryan said. “I thought we tried hard, and that’s all you can ask.

“We made a lot of dumb mistakes on defense and some mistakes on offense. We’re still doing things that you can’t do and win. We’ll straighten them out.”

Detroit Coach Darryl Rogers wasn’t at all satisfied, especially with a Lion rushing attack that gained only 47 yards in 21 attempts.

“I don’t know if the running game could get any worse,” he said. “We didn’t run the ball worth a hoot.”

Eddie Murray kicked a 53-yard field goal in the third quarter to give Detroit a 9-7 edge. Quarterback Joe Ferguson, who completed 10 of 21 passes for 133 yards, set up the kick with a seven-yard run on third-and-seven and an 18-yard pass to Tim Kearse on the following play.

Earlier, Murray sandwiched field goals of 19 and 29 yards around Ron Jaworski’s 45-yard touchdown pass play to Mike Waters as Philadelphia took a 7-6 lead.

Seattle 21, Indianapolis 14--Sean Salisbury, a rookie free agent from USC, passed for two touchdowns at Seattle to help the Seahawks beat the Colts in the exhibition opener for both clubs.

Salisbury teamed with tight end Gordon Hudson for a two-yard touchdown pass and hit Byron Franklin on a 20-yard scoring pass play. Both touchdowns came in the second quarter.

Salisbury had two scoring passes in a Kingdome scrimmage against Houston last week.

The Seahawks scored their third touchdown in the third quarter on a two-yard run by Rick Parros.

New Colt starting quarterback Gary Hogeboom, acquired in an April trade with Dallas, passed 25 yards to Ricky Nichols in the third quarter, and Indianapolis scored with 4:07 remaining on a one-yard run by Albert Bentley.

Seattle’s defense sacked Indianapolis’ two quarterbacks, Hogeboom and rookie Jack Trudeau, six times for losses that totaled 40 yards.