Welcome to the MMQB’s Quarter-Century Week. All week we’ll be publishing lists, rankings and columns looking back at the past 25 NFL seasons. You can find all those stories here.
There have been so many amazing plays over the past 25 NFL seasons, that it is virtually impossible to narrow the list down. There are championship-winning plays in the final minutes of Super Bowls. We’ve seen clutch touchdowns that swung seasons in the weeks well before the Big Game. There are trick plays and awesome displays of athleticism. There are bloopers and miscues and all sorts of lowlights.
But we asked our writers and editors to pick out their favorite plays of the past 25 years, and these are the ones they came up with.
Albert Breer
Maybe this says more about what I derive entertainment from than what the NFL has been over the past 25 years—but I can’t think of a play that was so hilarious, impactful and disastrous all at once. The Fail Mary was its own thing, and of its own unique time, and couldn’t have gone down in a more fitting way than it did.
The backdrop, of course, was the ridiculous referee lockout of 2012. A year after a very contentious player lockout, in June 2012, the owners locked out the officials (over retirement plans and staffing demands) and started hiring temporary replacements from lower-level college football, high school football and various minor leagues. The result was one of the more embarrassing Septembers in NFL history. In Week 1, the Seahawks were given four second-half timeouts. In Week 2, an official for the Saints-Panthers game was sidelined hours before kickoff after it was discovered, via his Facebook page, that he was a Saints fan.
In Week 3, the dam broke.
There was a helmet-to-helmet hit that went unflagged that knocked Raiders wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey unconscious. There was a Cowboys receiver tripping over an official’s hat, after the official threw the hat into the field of play. There was a game-winning field goal by Ravens kicker Justin Tucker on Sunday Night Football that appeared to sail wide right, leading to Patriots coach Bill Belichick physically grabbing an official postgame.
Then … there was the Fail Mary.
The Seahawks beat the Packers on a game-ending Hail Mary throw from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate. But Tate shoved his man to the ground with both hands before going up for the ball—clear offensive pass interference—and there was a dispute over whether he or Green Bay safety M.D. Jennings came down with the ball in the end. And as the cherry on top, in the moment, one official signaled a touchdown for Tate, while another signaled a touchback for Jennings.
The public flogging to follow for everyone involved was not for the faint of heart, not limited to sports media, and not undeserved.
Within 48 hours, the lockout ended. For obvious reasons.
Conor Orr
The Jakobi Meyers throwback “interception”
I liked this play from Week 15 of the 2022 season so much that I wrote about it immediately afterward. To me, it spelled the end of the Bill Belichick era in New England. Here was the most prepared, best situational coach in NFL history watching in complete amazement as his wide receiver spun around with time expiring and chucked a pass back toward the middle of the field to his incredibly unathletic quarterback. Of course, the ball was picked off by Chandler Jones and Jones stiff-armed Mac Jones into oblivion. The Patriots fell to 7–7 and wound up missing the playoffs. It was the first time the Raiders had beaten the Patriots since 2002.
One could pretty easily draw a path from that moment to Belichick now coaching at North Carolina. The team lost two of its three final games after this one and won only four the following year, which necessitated a breakup between Belichick and the Patriots—not to mention a series of tiresome documentaries, books and interviews that tried to properly assign credit for the two-decade run.
It’s still my favorite play because it makes no sense. None of the explanations were satisfying, and part of me wonders if players were just so sick of being there that they decided to attempt something truly wild and stunning. All of the radio calls and TV calls are predictably excellent as well, which helps the play live on in infamy.
Gilberto Manzano
Randy Moss’s behind-the-back lateral
The deep pass to Randy Moss is my favorite play. I could watch highlights of Daunte Culpepper launching 60-yard bombs to Moss all day. Former Vikings coach Mike Tice was on to something when he introduced the “Randy Ratio.” I don’t care that it didn’t produce many wins. Anyway, since there are way too many downfield plays of the legendary receiver “Mossing” defenders to single one out, I’ll go with a unique catch, one that ended with a touchdown, but not scored by Moss.
One of the best improvised plays of all time occurred in the final seconds of the first half between the Vikings and Broncos on Oct. 19, 2003. From the Minnesota 41-yard line, Culpepper launched a pass to Moss, who caught it at the 11 before tossing the ball over his back to running back Moe Williams as two defenders had the star receiver inches away from the ground. Moss’s magic trick ended with Williams running up the left side before raising the ball as he crossed the end zone to conclude the first half in spectacular fashion. “He pitched it,” Moss’s teammates could be heard screaming on the sideline. Moss credited his instincts and peripheral vision that saw purple as reasons why he attempted the heads up play.
The Vikings won 28–20, improving to 6–0, though they finished 9–7 and out of the playoffs.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has excelled at similar lateral plays in recent years, but I can’t recall seeing what Moss did 22 years ago, flipping the ball over his back without a clear view of who exactly was behind him.
Matt Verderame
The Chiefs run Shift to Rose Bowl Right Parade in the Super Bowl
The Chiefs have become a dynasty with three championships and five Super Bowl appearances in the past six years. But when they arrived in Miami for Super Bowl LIV in February 2020, they were just another group trying to win its first championship together.
Trailing 3–0 and driving on their second possession of the game against the 49ers, the Chiefs faced 4th-and-1 at the San Francisco 5-yard line. With 1:57 remaining in the first quarter, the Chiefs lined up in an unconventional formation: Patrick Mahomes in the shotgun, but with receivers Demarcus Robinson and Sammy Watkins, and running back Damien Williams lined up behind him to create a diamond formation. On Mahomes’s cue, everybody spun, with Robinson moving to the end of the line’s right side while Williams was positioned to take a direct snap.
Up front, the Chiefs also had an odd alignment. Future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce was lined up as the left tackle, while actual left tackle Eric Fisher was aligned as a tight end to the right of fellow tackle Mitch Schwartz.
Williams did a fantastic job fielding a snap to his right before darting into a massive hole, created by right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Schwartz. Williams picked up four yards, setting up first-and-goal from inside the San Francisco 1-yard line. On the next play, Mahomes ran in on an option.
The Chiefs had practiced the play since summer and never used it. Then, in the biggest spot the season had to offer, coach Andy Reid called for the trickery and it worked.
John Pluym
Brett Favre’s touchdown pass to Greg Lewis
The Vikings’ 2009 season was magical for several reasons, mainly because Brett Favre had joined the team after playing the previous year for the Jets.
Favre sought out the Vikings, who had a strong roster but lacked a legitimate starting quarterback. Favre also felt a sense of betrayal from the Packers, who had moved on to Aaron Rodgers, and the chance for Favre to compete against them in the NFC North was appealing.
While I despised Favre as a Packer, I loved him as a Viking. And the play he made against the 49ers on Sept. 27, 2009, is probably one of the top plays I’ve ever partially seen (I’ll explain below) in person (Hey, Gilberto, I saw Randy Moss’s lateral to Moe Williams in person, too. Unbelievable!).
I attended the game at the Metrodome with my wife, Barb. We ended up with seats in the upper deck in the end zone. The Vikings and Niners were both 2–0 going into the game, and the Vikings were losing 24–20 with 1:29 left in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota started its final drive from its 20-yard line and had no timeouts. I had given up on the Vikings winning, so Barb and I got up from our seats and started walking down the steps to the exit. We were still watching the game as we walked down the steps from our seats. Nine plays later, the Vikings faced a third-and-3 at the San Francisco 32. Barb was standing in front of me, along with a bunch of other fans, at the bottom of the steps.
Out of the shotgun, Favre took the snap, pump-faked, went back to throw, evaded a defender, rolled to his right and threw the ball to the back of the end zone. With no room to spare, Vikings receiver Greg Lewis caught the ball in stride over a 49ers defender and came down in possession just inside the back of the end zone. After a review, it was ruled that both of Lewis’s feet were in, as he had dragged his right toe inbounds.
Here’s the thing: I only saw Favre throw the ball. After he released it, everyone in front of Barb and me started jumping up and down. Barb saw the catch on the field, but I could only see it on the video board. Still, it was an unbelievable finish and an unbelievable year thanks to a magical season from Favre.
Mitch Goldich
Devin Hester’s decoy fake punt return
Favorite play is such a broad category that it’s almost impossible to pick one, but I’m happy to spotlight the journey of what might be my favorite trick play. It’s a fake punt return that I believe was first tried by the Bears in 2011, during Devin Hester’s sixth season. Yes, you read that right, a fake punt return. We’ve seen so many tricks: flea-flickers, designed laterals, unusual players targeted as eligible receivers, etc. But this was such a clever bit of misdirection that it just imprinted on my brain and I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve thought about it in the 14 years since I first saw it.
The Bears were receiving a punt and had Hester run to the opposite side of the field from where the ball was headed, knowing he’d draw attention his way. As defenders rushed to him, Johnny Knox fielded the punt on the other side of the field and ran it all the way in for a touchdown. Unfortunately the original play was wiped out by a holding call. (Joe Buck undersold it in live time, until Troy Aikman just started laughing when he caught on from a replay.)
The Rams then pulled off the same play in a 2014 game against the Seahawks. This time Tavon Austin was the decoy and Stedman Bailey took it home for a 90-yard touchdown.
It resurfaced just this past season, with the Bears dusting it off—against the Packers again. This time it worked for a 94-yard Josh Blackwell touchdown, and this time you can hear the color man laughing during the play.
This is a perfect trick play. It’s brilliant and it works every time, as long as you don’t get called for holding.
More From MMQB Quarter-Century Week
This article was originally published on www.si.com as MMQB Staff Shares Their Favorite Plays of the Past 25 Years.
