Tag: touchdown

WATCH: Sean Payton, Alvin Kamara collaborate on in-game adjustment to set up TD

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and RB Alvin Kamara collaborated on an in-game adjustment to set up a touchdown run for No. 41.

[sendtonews_embed video_id=”qxC6yyv3ni-1068821-7498″]

The very first qualities New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton used to describe Alvin Kamara, literally the first words out of his mouth back on April 29, 2017, were, “Extremely smart and versatile.” Kamara’s comprehension of the sport was the attribute that left a lasting impression on Payton, and it’s still a resource he’s counting on four years and 62 games together later, with 54 touchdowns scored by Kamara as a runner, receiver, and returner in that span.

Payton jogged over to join Kamara as they walked into the tunnel at the Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium last week, having gone into halftime up 14-9. The pair chatted about how the first half had played out before Payton picked Kamara’s brain for ideas about possible adjustments to make in the second half.

Kamara pointed to a Taysom Hill keeper they’d run earlier in the afternoon that featured motion from slot receiver Tommylee Lewis, saying that he’d seen how the Falcons defense keyed in on the pre-snap activity to create a vulnerable running lane. He wanted to run it again, but with a twist: this time, Kamara would take the handoff from Hill and catch the Atlanta linebackers flat-footed.

So Payton gave him that opportunity after halftime, with the Saints receiving the opening kick. After driving downfield to the Atlanta 11-yard line, Payton made the call with Kamara in scoring position. And the three-time Pro Bowler came through, barreling into the end zone to extend New Orleans’ lead.

The Saints would win 21-16, and the entire exchange was caught on film by WWL-TV sports photographer Adam Ney. Payton recounted the in-game collaboration during his weekly spot on WWL Radio, which Ney overlaid with raw video of the moment.

It’s not your typical theatric highlight reel, but it’s must-see footage for football junkies. And it goes a long way to explain the success Payton and Kamara have found together. As observed by new Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles coach Will Hall: “Great stuff. The best coaches always listen to their players!!! Especially the great player. A great player usually has a unique and accurate viewpoint of what is happening.”

See it for yourself, where we’ve embedded Ney’s video below, or by following this link:

[listicle id=41310]

WATCH: Big-time Pollard return leads to Gallup TD and Cowboys lead

Michael Gallup and the Cowboys capitalize on a short field after a long kick return from Tony Pollard.

Earlier in the season, Tony Pollard was absolutely murdering the Dallas Cowboys kick return game. His first attempt of the night was much of the same, a 15-yard return that set the team up with poor field position. The second one was much, much better.

After the defense allowed Lamar Jackson to rip through their soft teeth for an untouched touchdown, Pollard took the ensuing kick 67 yards to set the Cowboys up with a short field for the second time on the night.

This time the offense was able to capitalize. Michael Gallup got loose in the end zone for the second time on the night, but this time Andy Dalton didn’t miss.

Pollard’s play marks the third 60-plus yard kick return for the Cowboys on the season, a significant improvement from previous years’ iterations of the special teams unit. For Gallup that’s his first taste of pay dirt since back in Week 3.

Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce had perfect responses to Tyreek Hill’s would-be touchdown

Mahomes and Kelce had great responses to Hill’s would-be touchdown grab.

Kansas City Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill made an amazing touchdown grab on Sunday night, but it didn’t count. Officials didn’t call it a touchdown and no one caught the replay in time to challenge the play. Just like that, one of the most miraculous plays of the 2020 NFL season ceased to exist.

As it turns out, Patrick Mahomes was just as confused about Hill’s would-be touchdown as everyone else. However, when the dust settled, he had a great response that he shared with Hill.

ā€œI didnā€™t realize until after they showed the replay and we had already punted,” Mahomes told reporters on Sunday night. “So, I told Tyreek in the locker room I said, ā€˜Man, youā€™re so good at receiver you donā€™t even know when you catch touchdowns these days.ā€™ā€

Hill and Mahomes have combined for some incredible plays over the past three seasons. Hill has become quite the receiver in the process, but to be so good that you don’t even know when you catch touchdown passes, that’s a little silly. Obviously, spirits were high after a win and the response to this play would have been much different if the outcome of the game were different.

Travis Kelce, after having a historic day himself, was really awestruck by the whole thing. Not so much the circumstances that led to the catch not being called a touchdown, but the fact that Hill actually caught the pass. For him, it was another reminder of the incredible talent that Hill is.

“That was unbelievable,” Kelce said. “I forgot about that play, golly. I mean, what an amazing catch, right? To be on the same page as your quarterback, knowing that it’s Cover 0 and he put the ball right where it needed to be. To have a guy like Tyreek Hill, I mean, the most deadliest weapon that I’ve ever seen play this game. I stand behind that every single week. He’s good for big plays throughout the entire game and you have to account for that. Obviously, it makes my job and everybody else’s job on the field easier. I wish we would have had an extra tick to throw a red flag or try and challenge that because that guy is unbelievable, man.”

That’s some high praise for Hill from his teammate Kelce, who now is No. 2 in the NFL in receiving yards behind Seahawks wideout D.K. Metcalf. Hill is just behind Kelce in third place with 1,021 receiving yards on the year.

Hill has now caught a total of 13 touchdowns on the season. This marks his first game without a touchdown since Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills. He needs just three touchdown catches in the final four weeks of the season to break the franchise record for touchdown catches in a single season. It’s a shame that he was unable to wrangle this one, but that just means he’ll have to work a little bit harder against the Miami Dolphins in Week 14.

[listicle id=82142]

Chiefs HC Andy Reid explains why he didn’t challenge Tyreek Hill’s would-be touchdown

Reid said he’d never had a receiver that didn’t know he caught the football.

The Kansas City Chiefs left a miraculous Tyreek Hill touchdown on the field on Sunday night.

In one of the most bizarre plays of the 2020 NFL season, Hill caught what would have been the touchdown of the year. The problem was that it wasn’t called a touchdown on the field by officials and Hill didn’t actually know that he caught the ball. The pass was initially popped up, but it landed in Hill’s hands before ever hitting the ground. It all happened in the heat of being tackled to the ground by the defender at full speed. It was an immaculate reception of sorts.

By the time the replay came up on the video board, the team had already punted the ball away. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and Hill were left shrugging at each other on the sideline. During Reid’s postgame press conference, one of the first things he did was address what happened at that moment.

“Tyreek (Hill) had a couple of touchdowns, Iā€™ll take blame for the oneā€”Iā€™ve never had a receiver that didnā€™t know he caught the ball,” Reid said. “I mean, he came off and said he didnā€™t catch it and I probably shouldā€™ve hung on to that just a little bit longer to look at the replay. But Iā€™ve been doing this a couple of years, Iā€™ve never had that situation, so it was a new experience for me. Iā€™ll try to do better the next time with it, but what a heck of a job by him. He had two touchdowns taken back away from him.”

Most teams have a coach that is in charge of replay review in the booth and the Chiefs are no different. The view that they neededā€” the definitive shot in replay didn’t come up until they’d already snapped the ball and punted it away.

“Yeah, they were on it right when they saw it, and that was right when we were punting the ball,” Reid said. “So, I mean, it was a bang-bang thing and we didnā€™t have time to really look at it before we kicked the ball. So, we kicked it with about 10 seconds left, and normally thatā€™s kind of where you let it go down to right in that area and go with it. I checked with Tyreek, he came off, you can normally tell with a receiver if he had it or not, especially Tyreek, so he was surprised as any of us that he ended up with the football.”

It took 22 years as a head coach for a play like this to happen to Reid. I can’t imagine he’ll be able to call on this lesson moving forward, but it’ll just serve as a reminder to the coaching staff and players to keep their eyes peeled in moments like that. You never know the types of crazy things that the skill players in this offense are capable of.

[listicle id=82082]

WATCH: Chiefs fail to challenge apparent Tyreek Hill touchdown grab

Hill had a touchdown grab, but he didn’t know he had a touchdown grab.

In a wild series of events, the Kansas City Chiefs seem to have robbed themselves of what would have been an incredible touchdown grab by Tyreek Hill.

Hill beat Broncos corner A.J. Bouye on a deep route, but he didn’t catch the ball cleanly. It was popped up in the air and Hill was tackled to the ground. The ball ended up in Hill’s grasps, but he just assumed it had touched the ground in the process. The crazy thing is that the ball never did hit the ground. Instead, the ball simply bounced off his helmet and into his arms.

Check out the play down below:

Andy Reid never throws the challenge flag because Hill gets up and assumed he hadn’t made the catch. The officials didn’t call it a touchdown and he didn’t exactly see the ball throughout the process of the catch.

Typically, there is a coach in the booth that is in charge of watching the replay and calling in a challenge, but that didn’t happen for Kansas City. The team sent out Tommy Townsend and punted the ball back to the Broncos as if nothing had happened.

If the Chiefs can’t manage to get themselves back into this game, they’ll be looking back at this play as the one that got away.

[vertical-gallery id=82062]

WATCH: Jalen Hurts takes over, throws first NFL TD

Former Alabama QB Jalen Hurts has taken over QB duties for the Eagles as they take on the Green Bay Packers. He throws his first NFL tou..

Former Alabama and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles to sit behind incumbent starter Carson Wentz and be utilized in some offensive play packages.

After Wentz has been struggling throughout the season, many fans and players have called for him to be benched in place of Hurts.

Well, in the second half of the Eagles’ contest against the Green Bay Packers, Hurts got the nod.

This is not the first time Hurts has seen action, but it’s the first time he’s been given the reigns as the consistent quarterback for multiple drives.

His first touchdown pass was a memorable one; a fourth-and-18, 32-yard pass into the end zone. It fell right into the arms of Greg Ward.

WATCH: Jalen Hurts takes over, throws first NFL TD

Former Alabama QB Jalen Hurts has taken over QB duties for the Eagles as they take on the Green Bay Packers. He throws his first NFL tou..

Former Alabama and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles to sit behind incumbent starter Carson Wentz and be utilized in some offensive play packages.

After Wentz has been struggling throughout the season, many fans and players have called for him to be benched in place of Hurts.

Well, in the second half of the Eagles’ contest against the Green Bay Packers, Hurts got the nod.

This is not the first time Hurts has seen action, but it’s the first time he’s been given the reigns as the consistent quarterback for multiple drives.

His first touchdown pass was a memorable one; a fourth-and-18, 32-yard pass into the end zone. It fell right into the arms of Greg Ward.

WATCH: DeVonta Smith continues to make NFL scouts drool

Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith cannot be stopped. Mac Jones completes a 65-yard pass to Smith for the easy touchdown to build a lead…

Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith can’t stop scoring touchdowns. Is it becoming a problem? Maybe for opposing defenses, but certainly not for Mac Jones.

Touchdowns No. 36 and 37 in Smith’s collegiate career not only extends his record for receiving touchdowns within the Alabama program, but the SEC as a whole.

A 65-yard catch-and-score by Smith was touchdown No. 4 on the day for Alabama with plenty of time left in the first half.

The following possession Smith and Jones connect again for a 61-yard touchdown.

After the touchdowns, the Crimson Tide leads 35-14.

Smith’s speed, route running abilities and elusiveness created plenty of separation between him and the nearest LSU defender, allowing Jones to lob the ball up and over Smith’s shoulder, and the rest was history.

The second touchdown for Smith was a straight line. Nothing but pure speed helped Smith create separation.

WACTH: Najee Harris evades entire LSU defense to score first TD of game

Alabama strikes first in the contest between the two SEC West rivals. Najee Haris found his way into the end zone after an impressive ope…

No. 1 Alabama takes on unranked LSU on the road for a night game in Death Valley, and the Crimson Tide has not frgotten what happened when the two last met in 2019.

On the first drive of the game, which last seven plays for 75 yards, Najee Harris somehow find his way into the end zone for the first touchdown of the contest.

The 14-yard run that resulted in a touchdown almost seemed too easy for Harris, who wiggled in and out of defenders; breaking through the defensive front, then the linebackers and finally, the secondary.

Alabama is heavily favored in this game and the early touchdown should not have come as a surprise to those who have watched the two teams this season.

WATCH: Texas RB Bijan Robinson scores first collegiate touchdown against Kansas State

True freshman running back Bijan Robinson scored his first collegiate touchdown against Kansas State on Dec. 5.

True freshman running back Bijan Robinson finally found the end zone for Texas. Continue reading “WATCH: Texas RB Bijan Robinson scores first collegiate touchdown against Kansas State”