Re-Living NFL Hail Marys
Week 10 of the NFL season was slated to be a little sleepy. Yeah, there was a game-winning 59-yard field goal in the Detroit-Washington game, but otherwise none of the games really came down to the absolute wire.
Then the Bills and Cardinals saved the day. Josh Allen connected with Stefon Diggs on a phenomenal pitch-and-catch for the go-ahead touchdown with 34 seconds left... which was too much time for Kyler Murray. A couple of short gains later, Murray and DeAndre Hopkins hooked up for one of the most exciting plays in sports: the Hail Mary... sorry, Murray.
Such a play never fails to deliver awe, but it doesn't happen that often. Which gives us an excuse to post a bunch of Hail Marys from the past decade.
Aaron Rodgers: The future Hall of Famer deserves his own personal section, as he's become the master of the Hail Mary. His most recent came in the 2016 playoffs, when he found Randall Cobb from 42 yards out on the final play of the first half against the Giants.
That's not even his only playoff Hail Mary! In the 2015 playoffs, the Packers were down seven in the final seconds against the Cardinals before Rodgers pulled a rabbit out of his hat. And look at the play -- recognize anything? The quarterback rolling left, throwing against his body and completing it in the broadcast left end zone in Glendale? It's eerily similar to Murray's play on Sunday.
Neither of those plays won the game. Don't worry, Rodgers has one of those, too. It came in December 2015 against the Lions, when Rodgers tossed a 61-yard Hail Mary into the arms of Richard Rodgers for the win. Adding to the torture for Detroit fans? The play only happened because Green Bay's first attempt at a game-winner -- a long lateral play that was unsuccessful -- was saved by a Lions' face-mask call.
Halftime heaves: The little brother of the game-winning Hail Mary, these couple of plays were exciting, albeit came at the end of the half, as opposed to the end of the game. Most recently, the Vikings did it in 2018 against the Lions, when Kirk Cousins found Kyle Rudolph.
In 2016, the Bears completed one against the Bucs to end the half, as Jay Cutler connected with Cameron Meredith. That's the good news. The bad? It was Chicago's only touchdown in a 36-10 loss.
A few weeks before Meredith pulled his reception off, AJ Green did the same thing. The Bengals' star, in the prime of his career, made a juggling catch of an Andy Dalton heave, while falling and being tackled by multiple Cleveland defenders.
The thrillers: There were other halftime scores (including ones by Jimmy Clausen and Brian Hoyer!) but you get the point. Now to the good ones, starting with AJ Green and Cincinnati again. This one was... much easier... than the last one. Facing defeat against the Ravens in 2015, Dalton's Hail Mary was tipped twice into the open arms of Green for the game-tying touchdown. Unfortunately for Cincy, they'd lose in overtime.
The most memorable Hail Mary of the last decade, though, probably shouldn't have happened. The "Fail Mary" was the tipping point of the replacement referees, coming on Monday Night Football in 2012 between Seattle and Green Bay. The box score says Russell Wilson and Golden Tate connected for a 42-yard game-winner. Of course, in reality the Packers should have won as they intercepted the pass. Alas, would anyone remember that game had that been the call?
We finish up with a final game-winning Hail Mary that came 10 years ago. The Jaguars and Texans were tied at 24 in the closing seconds of regulation when David Garrard let one fly from midfield. Houston tried to bat it down at the goal-line, but instead of sending the ball into the ground, they sent it into the arms of Mike Sims-Walker, who fell backwards into the end zone for the game-winner.
