With the hype of the Super Bowl past us and the with the fans of Philadelphia done destroying their city, now is a great time to look back at the 2017 NFL season. This year had it all—incredible catches, defensive stops, spectacular teams meltdowns, and, most importantly, very entertaining touchdown celebrations. So, in no particular order, let’s look at some of the best plays of the 2017 NFL season.
Darting Deshaun
The Week Two matchup between the Houston Texans and Cincinnati Bengals was a classic example of a low-scoring grudge match. The Texans offensive line looked to bounce back after letting quarterback Deshaun Watson get sacked ten times in the previous game. Their offensive line still failed miserably, but this time, Watson was prepared. On 3rd and 15, with one minute left in the first half, the offensive line for the Texans collapsed, but Watson did not panic. Running through the middle of the collapsing pocket, Watson avoided two tacklers and, with a key block, was able to run 49 yards for a touchdown. Not many quarterbacks can run, and only a select few can run as fast and as well as Watson did on that play. Watson was unable to continue to demonstrate his versatility as a quarterback due to a season-ending injury he received in a subsequent game, but we should look for more excitement from this quarterback next year.
Field Goal Fiasco
Ah, Week Three, or as I like to call it, opposite week for both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears. This game featured a great Steelers team failing in almost every aspect of football while the Bears actually looked like a good football team for once. However, that doesn’t mean the Bears played a completely clean game throughout. With five seconds left in the first half, the Steelers attempted a field goal, which was blocked and picked up by Bears player Marcus Cooper. Cooper immediately started running the other way and it looked like the Bears would get another touchdown before the end of the half, but things didn’t work out that way. For some reason, Cooper slowed down and stopped at the 3-yard line, and Vance McDonald of the Steelers knocked the ball out of Cooper’s hands and out of play, preventing a touchdown. What was Cooper thinking? We may never know. But let this be a lesson—don’t celebrate until you’re in the endzone.
The Butt Catch
If there is a single part of the human body that a player is least likely to catch the ball with, it would be the gluteus maximus. Yet, somehow, Marshon Lattimore of the New Orleans Saints managed it in a Christmas Eve game against the Atlanta Falcons. On 3rd and 10, Atlanta QB Matt Ryan’s pass went off the hands of his intended receiver, Marvin Hall, and landed perfectly on the backside of a fallen Marshon Lattimore. Lattimore managed to keep it there, maintaining possession and giving him credit for the interception. The term “buttception” was conceived on Twitter to describe this play. It may not be as good as Mark Sanchez’s infamous “butt fumble” in 2012, but it does go down as one of the most impressive plays of the year.
Card Controversy
Week 15 saw the Dallas Cowboys playing against the Oakland Raiders. On 4th and 1, with only a few minutes left and the game tied up, the Cowboys’ playoff chances were at stake. The Cowboys’ Dak Prescott lined up to receive the snap with an empty backfield. He got the ball and made it almost to the first down line. Cowboy fans will say he made it. Raiders fans will say he didn’t. No one may ever know for certain, but Dak is not the reason this play is on the list. It’s what happened after that which makes this play so controversial. The referees spotted the nose of the football slightly short of the 40-yard line, the yard line the Cowboys needed for a first down. The referees then called for the measurement.
NFL rules state that if the ball is at a 90 degree angle with the measurement stick then it is a first down. So how did Head Referee Gene Steratore decide it was a first down? With an index card. He placed the index card against the nose of the football and determined it was perpendicular with the measurement stick and thus a first down. With a giant smirk on his face, Steratore gave the first down to the Cowboys. The announcers were dumbfounded that an index card had been used for the measurement. What made it even more controversial was that the index card was double folded, and, therefore, made the ball seem closer than it actually was to the measurement stick. The Cowboys would go on to kick the game winning field goal and the Raiders were left wondering what had happened. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, but paper beats the Raiders.
Tedious Touchdown
The Chicago Bears’ special teams make the list again, but this time in a positive play. In their Week 13 matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, both teams were playing for what little dignity they had left. The 49ers punted the ball to Tarik Cohen, who caught it at the Bears’ 39-yard line. Instead of doing what most players would do in a return situation, Cohen tried something a bit different. Rather than running forward, he ran backwards, toward his own endzone. With the whole stadium wondering why he was running 20 yards away from his endzone, Cohen turned the corner and ran the correct way. Now, however, all the 49ers players were behind him and he somehow managed to score a touchdown. While it will only go down as a 61-yard touchdown return, he unofficially ran over 90 yards in total to get the score.
Clutch Catch
The Texans were blown out more often than not in every game this season. Their Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was no exception, but it did give fans arguably the best catch of the last decade. On 1st and Goal, TJ Yates of the Texans lobbed a pass to DeAndre Hopkins in the corner of the end zone. While being covered, Hopkins jumped up and attempted a one hand catch with his right hand. The ball deflected off his right hand, but he then turned around while still in the air and caught the ball with his left hand, somehow managing to get both feet on the ground before falling out of bounds. The catch was masterful. Now only if the Texans played like that more often . . .
Solo Score
Wild Card playoff games are called “wild” because they are unpredictable. That statement is also completely false because Wild Card games usually pit a team with a convincing winning record against a team that barely made it into the playoffs. But, man, was this Wild Card game actually wild. With the Kansas City Chiefs dominating the first part of the game, it looked like the Tennessee Titans were out of it. Then against all odds, the Titans started mounting a comeback. The comeback began with an amazing combination of skill and luck from Titans QB Marcus Mariota. On 3rd and Goal, Mariota’s pocket collapsed around him and he was forced to scramble. Running towards the line of scrimmage, he tried to throw the ball to what he thought was an open receiver. That receiver was completely covered, but it didn’t matter because the ball deflected off the hands of a Chiefs defender and right back into the hands of Mariota as he fell into the endzone. The Titans would go on to win the game because Mariota had passed it to himself.
Celebrations
With the NFL relaxing its celebration rules for the season, we saw no shortage of great touchdown celebrations. The Detroit Lions performed their version of the Rockettes, the Pittsburgh Steelers played hide-and-seek, the Kansas City Chiefs had a potato sack race, and the Philadelphia Eagles played baseball and went bowling. While all of these celebrations were entertaining to watch, the best celebration would probably have to go to the Minnesota Vikings for sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal during their Thanksgiving Day game. They all sat down and pretended to have a nice meal of football turkey, reminding us that Thanksgiving isn’t all about football, just mostly football with some family time.
Every NFL season gives fans outstanding and occasionally humorous highlights. Perhaps the during the off-season, teams will develop even more creative touchdown celebrations. And while next season will bring its own highlights, one thing we do know for certain is that index cards will no longer be used to determine first downs.