There is only one game left in the 2022 NFL season, Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. Don’t be in any doubt, the final will also be full of sensational moves, historical milestones and stories, just like the rest of the season. We tried to collect them.
Benny Hill Show
Despite the fact that the world’s best American football players play in the NFL, there is some short-circuiting and clumsiness, even with those who really are the kings of kings. Miami Dolphins punter Thomas Morstead may have just recently encountered Mark Sanchez’s iconic butt fumble, but there’s no other explanation for why he kicked his own teammate Trent Sherfield in the butt with the ball.
Fortunately, the Dolphins hung on for the remaining minute and a half and won the group stage against the Buffalo Bills.
We can easily prepare the evergreen music of the Benny Hill Show for the next video, even though the main character is none other than Tom Brady. We already saw in the Super Bowl five years ago that the greatest running back of all time will not have the same path as, say, Julian Edelman, i.e. he will never become a catcher from a QB.
In Tampa Bay, he didn’t really like this rare role either, so the end of the game that started with Leonard Fournette’s pass could not be anything other than an interception by Tariq Woolen.
Brady tried to save the savable and quickly kicked the defender before he could get away with the egg. Maybe the German turf confused him.
Control wheel and Mr. Insignificant
Despite the NFL going to great lengths to protect quarterbacks (resulting in scandalous “roughing the passer” rulings), more than 70 quarterbacks played in the regular season. Of course, the injury is only one explanation for this, because many people had to blame themselves for the benching or the poor performance, or the horrible attitude, or maybe both (hello, Zach Wilson).
Nowhere were the passers affected by such a wave of injuries as in San Francisco, where Trey Lance, who was appointed as the starter before the season, was soon knocked out and replaced, and Jimmy Garoppolo, who was almost traded before the season, followed him to the hospital.
There was nothing to do, it had to be thrown into the deep water as the last pick in the 2022 draft, thus the “Mr. “Insignificant” title-deserving Brock Purdy, with whom the 49ers were defeated in one fell swoop and marched undefeated all the way to the NFC finals. However, there was Haason Reddick, who tore Purdy’s elbow (the quarterback will probably miss the next season as well), so Josh Jackson had to step in, but he suffered a concussion, and with that, Frisco’s fate was sealed for good.
However, there was someone who we have known for more than 20 years to be indestructible (not even Bernard Pollard managed to do it) and he broke several records this year as well. It’s another matter of what kind of coaching “genius” can be born from the fact that a 45-year-old manager has to set NFL records in pass attempts and accurate passes to keep his championship team above water two years ago, but Tom Brady still has that for a while also succeeded.
In the process, he became the first player to reach 100,000 passing yards (regular and playoff combined), and it’s very hard to imagine anyone joining him in this club.
But the Buccaneers fell apart around him, so it’s debatable whether he made the right decision not to retire. The other day he announced that that was really all there was to it, the question is whether anyone believes this. Especially yourself.
Dramatic endgames
We’ve had no shortage of them either, so here’s the craziest/most important examples, starting with the biggest translation in NFL history. In Game Week 15, the Minnesota Vikings hosted the Indianapolis Colts hoping to secure first place in the NFC North with a win. The guests, led by Jeff Saturday, tried to spit in the soup and led 33-0 at halftime, but it turned out that this was not a sufficient advantage either. The Vikings overcame their deficit and won 39-36 in overtime, and the 33-point conversion is the greatest of all time. Matt Ryan has probably been thinking ever since that he is the victim of historic events not only in the Super Bowl, but also in the regular season.
It’s hard to explain what happened on the last play of the Oakland Raiders-New England Patriots game, and in the same round as our previous case. So Bill Belichick probably thought that without a timeout, three seconds is not enough for a pass plus a field goal, so he pulled the unexpected by calling the so-called he called for lateral play, i.e. he tried not with one pass, but with many back passes, in a kind of rugby style.
However, Jakobi Meyers passed the ball not to the team, but to the expatriot defender, Chandler Jones, who flattened the New England manager, Mac Jones, with a simple stiff arm, and then did not stop until the end zone, which won the game for the Raiders.
And how fatal was that? In fact, even this one success could be what the Belichicks lacked in order to be in the playoffs.
There must have been something in the air that weekend in the US, because our next series fell then and also affected the playoff field. The Dallas Cowboys stormed to a 34-34 overtime victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, Dak Prescott’s pass bounced off Noah Brown, right into the hands of Rayshawn Jenkins, who raced toward the end zone. According to his own account, he ran for his life and finally got it, grabbing the victory that kept the Jax in the playoff race, and in the final round of the regular season, they fought it out against the division rival Tennessee Titans.
Let’s take a moment to remember Jenkins’ entire production that day: 18 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 winning touchdown.
Although the excitement of the playoffs fell a little short of expectations, there were still twists and turns. Like, for example, in the Cincinnati-Baltimore wild card matchup, where the Ravens held on well for a long time and even almost took the lead in the fourth quarter.
However, Logan Wilson knocked the ball out of Tyler Huntley’s hands in front of the goal line, which Sam Hubbard picked up and ran 98 yards to the end zone, giving the Bengals the lead.
And the 98-yard fumble TD was a playoff record and allowed Cincinnati to advance.
The Los Angeles Chargers didn’t lie to themselves either and were once again able to melt down in a banal way, which Jacksonville took advantage of in the wild card round. Trevor Lawrence’s team eliminated a 27-0 deficit, then with a last-second field goal, they fought to advance.
And the winner of the 2022 draft is clearly Joseph Ossai, who in the last seconds of the Kansas City-Cincinnati AFC Finals committed a completely unnecessary foul on Patrick Mahomes outside the field, and the 15-yard penalty was actually embedded in Harrison Butker’s winning field goal, which KC advanced to the to the Super Bowl.
The Detroit Lions became a factor! Dan Campbell’s team was loved by many during/after Hard Knocks, and the team was able to bring the struggle and enthusiasm that the head coach tried to convey during the preparation to the field during the season. However, luck was not on their side either, and although they were in the race for the playoffs until the very end, the feat did not come together.
However, the farewell was still successful, as they were able to knock the arch-rival Green Bay Packers out of the playoffs at the end of the regular season, and that victory was more than likely the final nail in the coffin of Aaron Rodgers’ career in Wisconsin.
Crazy catches
The Minnesota Vikings youngster, Justin Jefferson, has arguably become one of the best receivers in the NFL, and to prove it, against the Buffalo Bills, he made a catch that was not only amazingly spectacular, but at least as important, but instead of words, let’s look at what happened.
Early in the season, rookie George Pickens also indicated that he paid attention in classes at the Odell Beckham school. (Of course, he didn’t see this on the show “How to get on a plane in Miami and get everyone off the plane because of me.”)
And let’s not forget Mike Williams, who even did a pirouette after his one-handed catch.
You simply can’t get enough of these!
Almost tragic injuries
We cannot ignore what happened at the meeting between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills at dawn on January 3, Hungarian time. Bills safety Damar Hamlin got up after a hit, then collapsed, and you could immediately tell he was in serious trouble.
Hamlin had a heart attack, but thanks to the quick help, they were able to revive him, but he was still taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Half the world was anxious for Hamlin’s recovery, an unparalleled unity was created in the NFL and even in the entire American sports world. Miraculously, the 24-year-old player underwent a lightning-fast recovery, after seven days he was taken home to a Buffalo hospital, from which he was released two days later.
It is not known whether he will be able to return to the field, but it is much, much more important that the incident did not end in tragedy.
Even during his university years, the most pressing question about Tua Tagovailoa was how well he could stay healthy, but no one doubted his talent. Then, at the Miami Dolphins, his performance was criticized a lot, but this season he clearly stepped up and started the season great. But he suffered a concussion in the 3rd round, but was allowed back on the field, and in the 4th week he had to be taken off the field on a stretcher with an even more serious head injury, so that you could clearly see in front of him that he was not himself and his hands were cramping.
In the recent period, several cases revealed how amateurish and dirty the Miami team functions, which also broke the rules by allowing Tua to be on the field at all in this match.
Shockingly, he was playing again a few weeks later, but in December his symptoms reappeared and he entered the concussion protocol, from which he did not make it until the end of the season. It’s good news that he has since been given the green light, but it’s a different matter that from now on each concussion can have terribly serious consequences and it’s no coincidence that several neurologists almost begged him to retire for his own sake.
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