The ultimate trick play worked by Kai Millner in an Arizona HS game
This is one we can expect Patrick Mahomes never to try in an NFL game. Then, again, no one might try it at any level.
Watch as Cal commit Kai Millner turns his back to the end zone after some play action and throws a no-look pass over his head into the end zone.
Millner, who plays at Arizona’s Higley High, went into a different bag of tricks in the final game of the season for this one. The opposition was Mountain Ridge in the “Chilly Bowl”
The atypical fake jet sweep, followed by a fake handoff, followed by a blind, over-the-shoulder toss to a wide-open tight end in the end zone.
Bring it in next time, Matthew. We believe in you.
I’m sorry, Matthew Stafford, but you have to make this play.
The ball is dropped right into your hands. You have just enough time to get low and avoid being completely de-brained by a defender. The timing is perfect.
Look at this pass. Look at that loft! The spiral! It’s harder to not catch this ball than it is to catch it. This is the friendliest football. This is me tossing to my youngest nephew.
I’m in awe of this pass, truly. In part because you can see Jamal Agnew go from, “Nope, I can’t complete this trick play” to “Actually, I am exactly the man to do this … and you are, too, Matt.” The triumph of the human spirit, the exaltation of hope and determination, right there on display for all to see as we cozy up to a plate of bland turkey and ponder why we’re thankful in our most difficult year.
I award you zero points for your exuberant “fumble recovery;” if this month has taught America nothing else it is that there is no dignity in pretending that you did not lose when you did.
This was a catchable ball, Matthew. I get it. You’re a quarterback, and a very good one, and this play was probably designed to spring you completely free, not into double coverage, and the right thing to do would have been to bail and live for the next play.
But that’s not what happened, and your moment came. And then the football descended gracefully into your arms — until you let it skitter away. And that left Matt Prater to come onto the field a few plays later to kick a 29-yard field goal to make it 24-17, Texans, in the third quarter.
What could have been.
(Lions coach Matt Patricia did challenge the call, because let’s be honest it was pretty close, but it was not overturned.)
Kelce’s underhand toss to Byron Pringle built off two other trick plays the Chiefs have used this season.
The Kansas City Chiefs busted out the bag of tricks again during their 35-31 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
You’ll recall earlier in the season that the Chiefs have utilized a number of unique plays to get points or positive yardage in key situations. A few of the most recent include QB Patrick Mahomes throwing an underhand TD pass to Travis Kelce in Week 8 against the New York Jets. Then in Week 9 against the Carolina Panthers, they debuted “Ferrari Right” which sent Mahomes in pre-snap motion before the play.
On Sunday in Week 11, the Chiefs revealed a play that drew from elements of both of those plays and added it’s own unique twist. The twist, of course, was Kelce taking the snap in a Wildcat look. Check it out:
This play seemingly combines the underhand shovel pass and the pre-snap motion from the two plays. However, instead of Mahomes taking the ball this time around, it’s a direct snap to Kelce, who then gets the ball to WR Byron Pringle. Unfortunately, Pringle turned the wrong way upfield after catching the pass and ran into some traffic. He still managed to fight for the first down, but he could have had a touchdown had he turned the opposite direction.
Kelce spoke a bit about this play after the game, revealing its name and origin. Apparently, it was a very recent addition to the playbook.
“It went in, I think on Thursday or Friday,” Kelce said. “It’s called ‘Slot Machine Right.’ Yeah, I was hoping that we would hit all sevens on that son of buck, doggone man. But Pring (Byron Pringle) was out there trying to make a play and sure enough, we got some positive yards which was the best.”
Mahomes also spoke a bit about the play after the game. He was impressed with the underhand toss by Kelce but also thought the play could have been executed a bit better. He even thought that he was open in the flat on the play and could have beat Raiders linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski to the endzone.
“I thought he did a good job,” Mahomes said. “He was able to sell it, get the underhand throw on that inside shoulder and get Pringle a chance. We actually had it designed to be a little tighter. I think if we were able to get it even tighter we would have got that touchdown. I was even open the flat if he wanted to sling it out there as well.”
Kelce is now 1-for-2 passing in his career in Kansas City. His last pass came against the New York Giants back in 2017. He threw an interception on that one.
Wil Lutz is willing to do a lot to help the New Orleans Saints win football games. Kick field goals from 60 yards out? He’s your man. Execute an onside kick? He’s game. Lining up at the X-receiver spot and running a deep corner route? Maybe call up someone else.
The Saints have been hit hard by injuries and COVID-19 absences to the wide receiver corps, taking out three of their top five options for Sunday’s road game with the Chicago Bears: starters Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders are unavailable, as is breakout rookie Marquez Callaway. So when a fan jokingly suggested it’s time for Lutz to try out in a big spot, he quickly shot the suggestion down.
Lutz referenced a botched trick play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2017, his own rookie year, when the Saints called him for to take off and run after a faked field goal. He was stopped short on 4th-and-5 by Buccaneers linebacker Kwon Alexander, which made for a painful collision between the specialist and a defender with 30 or 40 pounds on him and a full head of steam.
So that’s one option down. Fortunately, the Saints have plenty of other weapons to call on against Chicago, like Offensive Player of the Year candidate Alvin Kamara. If Lutz has his way, he’ll be kicking a number of extra-point attempts after a series of Kamara touchdowns on Sunday.
Originally, Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson did not want to perform the trick play with DeAndre Hopkins against the New England Patriots.
The H-Town special almost wasn’t a special.
The Houston Texans’ creative Duke Johnson handoff to DeAndre Hopkins pitch to Deshaun Watson nearly didn’t happen. Watson didn’t like what he saw on the play, as the New England Patriots were playing a zone defense rather than man.
“Honestly it wasn’t the perfect look,” Watson told reporters after the 28-22 win. “We wanted man coverage where the safety was one backer here. They went kind of like a two-high look. It was funky at first. I wanted to check out of it.”
Watson wanted man. He didn’t get it. The timing was right, so was the personnel. Despite not getting the right defense, he went for it.
On first-and-goal with 9:58 left in the fourth, Watson handed it off to Johnson, Hopkins sprinted behind them, took the ball, hauled towards the end zone, then, at the last moment, he pitched it to Watson. Touchdown Texans.
“But I was like, ‘No, this is a perfect time.’ We got it here. If we don’t run it now, probably never run it. So I was like forget it. Me and Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) will make something work. He pulled up. The safety, the corner was sitting out there, I think it was J.C. Jackson. I saw Hop tuck it, took one step, and I knew he was going to pitch it right out. I just know Hop like the back of my hand. He just threw it up in the air, I got it, scored. It was cool,” said Watson.
Ultimately, Watson did not check out of the play. The result: six points, confusion and a score that would eventually finish off a monumental win, drop the Patriots 10-2, and relegate New England to the No. 2 seed for now due to Baltimore Ravens having the tiebreaker over the top team in the AFC East.
Hopkins was credited for the touchdown pass on the play, while Watson came down with a six-yard touchdown reception. Most importantly, it capped off a win.
If Watson checked out of it, who knows what would have happened?
The Houston Texans called a trick play in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots in the 28-22. What did they see that would make it work?
The Houston Texans didn’t just earn a statement win over the New England Patriots 28-22 on Sunday Night Football, but provided a statement play that will forever be linked with the victory.
On first-and-goal from the 6-yard line with 9:58 to go in the game, Watson handed off to running back Duke Johnson, who was sweeping to the left side. Johnson handed the ball off to receiver DeAndre Hopkins coming around the right side and then tossed the ball forward to quarterback Deshaun Watson for the All-Pro wideout’s first touchdown pass of the season.
“It was a play we’ve been working on for four weeks,” Watson told reporters after the win. “Right when we got inside the five, I kind of knew the whole play call that was going to be called. That was the play called.”
According to Watson, excitement permeated the huddle.
For Hopkins, even though the play was designed as a pass to the quarterback, he knew that he would have to do an expert job selling the Patriots defense on the fact he might sweep around himself.
“I knew holding onto the ball, getting the guy to commit, it would lead to Deshaun being open,” Hopkins said. “I knew all I had to do was give him the ball.”
Watson credits Hopkins for giving the final deception to make the gadget play work.
Said Watson: “He did a good job of really selling the guys that come up, and then giving me a good pitch enough where I can catch it and dive in. Give all the credit to Hop and the pass. It was good.”
The rudiments for the play were on a two-point conversion the Chicago Bears ran against the Minnesota Vikings in 2017.
“Chicago did it,” Watson explained. “We brought it up. Me and A.J. McCarron were looking at it. We were watching film one day and were like — actually we probably can run that. We threw it out to [offensive coordinator] Tim Kelly, [coach] OB (Bill O’Brien) and then Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) saw it, and Hop of course is like, ‘Let’s do it! Let’s do it!.'”
Another element that made the play work was the chemistry between Watson and Hopkins, an unspoken bond that has led to numerous big connections throughout their three seasons together.
“I knew I had to kind of tuck the ball, wait for him to commit, to throw it to Deshaun,” Hopkins said. “I knew once I threw it to him, he was going to be in.”
Watson said he knew the moment Hopkins was going to release the ball.
“I saw Hop tuck it, took one step, and I knew he was going to pitch it right out,” said Watson. “I just know Hop like the back of my hand. He just threw it up in the air, I got it, scored.”
Watson joked that he appreciated adding the play to his highlight reel because it proves to anybody who will listen that he is a versatile athlete.
“I told him I’m an athlete, could play d-end, safety, all that stuff,” Watson said. “The more you can do, the longer you play in this league. I can do it all.”
Russell Wilson couldn’t wait to remind everyone that he’s the NFL’s best deep passer — and should still be in the lead for the MVP vote.
It seems that with the Seahawks’ Week 11 bye, the NFL MVP conversation shifted from Russell Wilson to Lamar Jackson in a big hurry. And while Jackson deserves every bit of the praise coming his way, we may be experiencing some recency bias. Early on in Seattle’s Week 12 game against the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field, Wilson seemed determined to remind everyone just who’s in charge here.
The Seahawks went three-and-out with a Wilson sack on their first drive, but perhaps they were just warming up. On Seattle’s second drive, Wilson hit tight end Jacob Hollister for 21 yards, zinged one to DK Metcalf for 17 more yards, and then, there was this.
With right tackle/Godzilla tight end George Fant in motion from left to right, Wilson handed the ball to halfback Chris Carson out of heavy personnel, and the Eagles certainly assumed a running play here. Not so fast, Sherlock, as Carson dumped the ball back to Wilson, who dutifully waited for receiver Malik Turner to get open downfield.
Turner actually wasn’t all that open downfield, with safety Rodney McLeod (No. 23) and cornerback Jalen Mills (No. 31) converging. But Wilson put the biscuit in the basket, and made an absolutely phenomenal throw to Turner for the 33-yard touchdown.
Making this throw more impressive? Check out the conditions at the Linc today:
Coming into this game, Wilson led all quarterbacks with a 135.4 passer rating on passes of 20 or more air yards, and this will just up that particular statistic. Counting that touchdown, Wilson has now completed 27 of 53 deep balls for 360 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions.
It’s just one part of Wilson’s MVP portfolio, but his status as the league’s most efficient deep passer is a crucial tool for a run-balanced offense that gets its shot plays off play action, and relies on a ruthlessly accurate deep thrower to keep things going.
