NFL fans are losing it after the Dolphins beat the Patriots with a wild trick play
Most fans of professional football that don't live in or have family ties to Boston hate the New England Patriots. Those people are very happy on this late-season Sunday.
It looked like a Patriots win was all but secured as the game clock ticked into its final seconds during an afternoon match-up against the Miami Dolphins. But that's when it happened, a real-deal NFL miracle. The "Miami Miracle," as it's now been dubbed.
Miami, down by 5 points with just seven seconds to go, delivered the most unexpected touchdown play. It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see at the end of a sports movie, when the underdog team completely trips up the reigning champs by pulling off a trick play that nobody saw coming.
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This is one of those obscure pro football rules that most people, even casual fans, don't necessarily know about. In the NFL, forward passes can only happen from behind the line of scrimmage -- the place where players set up before a play begins. But lateral passes, which don't move the ball further down the field, can happen anywhere and at any time after a play has begun.
That's what you're seeing here: Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill let the ball fly to his waiting receiver, Kenny Stills. It looked like a dead play right there, with Stills facing an imminent tackle as soon as he took possession of the ball.
That's not how things went though! Stills dumped the ball to a nearby player, who then tossed it again to another nearby player. The dizzying few seconds of action caught the Patriots by surprise and opened the door for Miami to score a final touchdown on the last play, multiple seconds after the game clock hit zero.
It's the kind of football maneuver that transcends fandom and goes down in history. You don't have to fully understand the sport to appreciate what happened here. The replay video tells the whole story.
Predictably, this brief, made-for-the-movies moment drew a loud and excited response on social media.
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
