The aim of the defense on most Hail Mary plays is to knock the ball down before it can reach the hands of a receiver, but Dolphins safety Jevon Holland came up with something different on Friday.
Jets quarterback Tim Boyle’s pass was dying short of the end zone and Holland calculated that he could reach the ball for an interception. With the Jets’ receivers all the way downfield, there were only a few players between the two end zones so Holland decided to go for the big play.
“We going into the half, right, so I’m like we can double dip,” Holland said, via Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN.com. “I know we get the ball after halftime, so I was like, let me go ahead and score or try to score so we can double dip and just score again, so that we’re two scores back and back. So, no thought of knocking anything [down].”
Holland got some blocks to help deal with the remaining Jets and then found himself one-on-one with Boyle. Holland said he “had to take those ankles” and bypassed the quarterback on his way to a 99-yard touchdown. The score put the Dolphins up 17-6 at halftime and sent them on their way to a 34-13 win with a play for the highlight reel.
