At first glance, it seemed like a broken play somehow — perhaps miraculously — worked out.
Quarterback Jared Goff stumbled. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs fell down. The offensive line yelled out “fumble.”
And yet somehow moments later, Goff still found Lions tight end Sam LaPorta for a touchdown Sunday against the Bears.
“Gibbs stumbled — after taking the snap — but it doesn’t matter,” Fox play-by-play voice Kenny Albert said. “Connects with LaPorta for a Lions touchdown. Even when something goes wrong…”
Except nothing went wrong.
The Lions brilliantly pulled off their “stumble bum” play — as dubbed by LaPorta — on Sunday in the 34-17 thrashing of their NFC North rivals.
“It worked like a charm,” Goff said. “It was nice to score there.”
In a copycat league, the Lions actually stole their play from the bitter rival Packers.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love pulled off a similar play in Week 1 last season when he fumbled the snap, turned around calmly and fired down the field for a 37-yard completion to tight end Luke Musgrave.
The Detroit Lions “stumble bum” touchdown play was inspired by the Packers turning a botched snap into major yardage against… the Bears 😲Ben Johnson is a madman 👨🔬(🎥: @NFL_Memes)pic.twitter.com/HBan5Ozol7
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) December 23, 2024
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson asked Goff early in the week if he thought he could fumble on purpose and pick up the ball, as Love did, but Goff didn’t know if that would work.
The team practiced the play several times before unleashing it.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know about that,’” Golf said. “We kind of got off that pretty quickly and we were like let’s pretend we’re falling or pretend I’m fumbling, but I’m holding onto the ball.