Justin Tucker set an NFL record in the Baltimore Ravens’ win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, and he did so with the game on the line.
Tucker converted a 66-yard field goal as time expired to lift Baltimore to a 19-17 victory. The ball hit off the cross bar and bounced into the kicking net.
Here’s another angle of the boot:
Tucker’s 66-yard field goal broke the previous NFL record of 64, which was set by Matt Prater when he was with the Denver Broncos in 2013.
We saw an even longer field goal attempted earlier in the day, but the end result was a disaster for the team that tried it.
Tucker is one of the best kickers in NFL history, so it’s fitting that he now holds the record for longest field goal. The fact that he converted the kick with the game on the line only adds to his legacy.
Unsurprisingly, the Ohio State Buckeyes have swiftly dealt with K’Vaughan Pope after his midgame meltdown Saturday.
Pope, a senior linebacker, essentially quit the team midgame during the Buckeyes’ win over Akron. He then made things worse for himself by sending some ill-advised tweets about the situation.
On Sunday, coach Ryan Day announced in a statement that Pope had been dismissed from the team, but would remain on scholarship.
Pope also sent a tweet apologizing for his conduct earlier Sunday.
Pope didn’t leave the Buckeyes much of a choice here. He publicly embarrassed the team and the coach. They couldn’t keep him around after that.
The senior linebacker finishes his career with 19 total tackles and two interceptions in 11 games.
The Chicago Bears had an embarrassing defeat at Cleveland on Sunday. They lost 26-6 to the Browns and struggled to do anything offensively. Nick Foles seemed to mention that while on the sidelines.
Foles is the Bears’ No. 3 quarterback, behind Justin Fields and Andy Dalton on the depth chart. Foles hasn’t seen any playing time this season, but he saw enough on Sunday to know that whatever the Bears had drawn up wasn’t working.
This video clip appears to show Foles saying something along the lines of “Matt’s offense just isn’t working.”
If that’s what he said, Foles was talking about Bears head coach Matt Nagy. And he wouldn’t be wrong.
The Bears could not move the ball against Cleveland. They had just 47 yards and six first downs in the game. Fields was sacked nine times for 67 yards.
And Bears fans thought Dalton was bad? This was hideous.
Mac Jones has been wearing a knee brace since training camp with the New England Patriots, but it appears the rookie felt it was holding him back in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.
Jones took his knee brace off and tossed it to the sideline with the Patriots trailing 21-6 in the fourth quarter. On the very next play, he threw a touchdown pass to Kendrick Bourne.
Jones began wearing the brace during training camp, though it was not clear if he suffered an injury. He said he was just wearing it for “protective” reasons. He obviously was not comfortable with it on Sunday, so it will be interesting to see if he wears it again going forward.
Trevor Lawrence put his Jacksonville Jaguars in a hole on Sunday with an ugly pick-six.
The Jags were leading the Arizona Cardinals 19-17 late in the third quarter. They had a 2nd-and-6 at their 25 and opted for a flea flicker. The play did not work well, as Arizona penetrated up the middle and put some pressure on Lawrence.
The No. 1 pick made a rookie play and tried to throw a ball up off his back foot. It ended up being intercepted by Byron Murphy Jr. and returned 29 yards for a touchdown to put Arizona up 24-19.
Lawrence just learned the hard way that you can’t make that type of throw in the NFL and get away with it. Throw it out of bounds or just eat it. Don’t just heave it up like you’re playing Wake Forest and have a 5-star receiver who will come down with it. This is the NFL.
Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown torched the Detroit Lions’ secondary numerous times in the first half on Sunday, but the former first-round pick had very little to show for it.
Brown dropped multiple passes that would likely have resulted in easy touchdowns if he hauled them in. One pass hit off Brown’s hands in the back of the end zone, but it appeared to be tipped by a defender. The other two looked like this:
Twitter was not kind to Hollywood.
Brown has appeared to be on the verge of a breakout through the first two weeks of the season. He had six catches for 113 yards and a touchdown in last week’s thrilling win over the Kansas City Chiefs. His talent was on full display with how easily he was getting open on Sunday, but obviously he needs to work on his hands.
Jalen Ramsey broke out a bold fashion choice upon arriving at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Los Angeles Rams cornerback was wearing a custom blue suit with yellow trim. He was also driving a yellow and blue sports car that had the Rams’ logo on it. Take a look:
Maybe Ramsey is making a nod to Hispanic Heritage Month with the Mariachi band suit.
He’s not the only Los Angeles athlete to embrace the Charro outfit style. Did you see what one Dodgers player wore to the White House?
The new AP Top 25 college football poll was released on Sunday, and the Clemson Tigers still managed to find themselves ranked. That is ridiculous as they have no business being in the top 25.
Clemson lost 27-21 in double overtime at NC State on Saturday to fall to 2-2. The Tigers were ranked No. 9 entering the game and have dropped 16 spots to No. 25. The Coaches Poll is even more egregious, as they only dropped Clemson to No. 19.
As you probably figured, Clemson is the only two-loss team ranked in the top 25. Through four weeks in the season, a team with two losses should not be ranked. And if we’re going by the eyeball test, Clemson definitely does not deserve to be ranked.
The Tigers’ offense has failed to score more than 14 points in regulation in three of its four games. They only scored three points against Georgia. They barely beat Georgia Tech 14-8 and needed a stop on the last play to seal their win. And they lost 27-21 to NC State, scoring just 14 points in regulation. They were lucky that NC State even missed a few field goals late to send it to OT.
The reality is Clemson’s offense is nowhere near what we are used to seeing from them. They still have a good defense, but their offense is only average.
Please tell me why BC at 4-0 or SMU at 4-0 aren’t ranked higher than them? Sure, Clemson deserves credit for facing a tough Georgia team non-conference. But look at how average they have been even in their other games.
Maybe Clemson will begin to turn things around and their offense will click. Maybe they will beat BC and then Syracuse in their next two games and start to earn their ranking. But for now, they definitely don’t deserve a spot that high, especially when so many other teams haven’t lost.
The Arizona Cardinals attempted what would have been the longest field goal in football history on Sunday, and the end result was a touchdown for the other team.
Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury for some reason had kicker Matt Prater attempt a 68-yard field goal with seconds left in first half. The kick came up short, as expected. The Jacksonville Jaguars had their kick returner, Jamal Agnew, waiting in the back of the end zone in anticipation of the kick not reaching the goal posts. That’s exactly what happened.
Agnew then broke a tackle and got a couple of great blocks en route to the end zone.
What was Kingsbury thinking? There was no way Prater was going to make that kick, leaving two possible outcomes — a missed field goal before the half or a free touchdown for the Jags. That was just an abysmal decision from the Cardinals coach.
Antonio Gibson came up with a big play for Washington against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, and he capped it off with an impressive dive into the end zone.
Gibson took a short pass from Taylor Heinicke on a screen early in the second quarter. He got some good blocking downfield and then outran several Bills towards the end zone. However, Tredavious White had an angle on him and tried to bump him out of bounds. Gibson took the contact, stayed inbounds, and then dove to the pylon for a TD:
What a play!
That was well drawn up and executed perfectly by Washington. You have to love Gibson’s effort to make sure he scored, too.
The play went for 73 yards and helped Washington get back into the game after trailing 21-0 in the second.
