Matthew Stafford is lucky to have one of the best receiving corps in the league but he didn’t need them on this play during Thursday’s practice with the Cowboys. He threw a touchdown pass to himself on what was a wild play in the red zone, something that you don’t see happen every day.
Stafford was pressured (and would’ve been sacked) by Micah Parsons, flushing him from the pocket. He rolled to his left and tried to hit Tyler Johnson near the goal line, but the ball was tipped twice and remained in the air for a long time, allowing Stafford to catch his own pass.
He hauled it in, broke a couple of “tackles” and tumbled into the end zone for a touchdown. Not bad for a 36-year-old vet, eh?
Micah Parsons sacks Matthew Stafford…
But they carry out the play.
And Matthew Stafford throws a touchdown…
To Matthew Stafford. pic.twitter.com/SgoxnkHldX
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) August 8, 2024
He laughed about the play afterwards, joking about how old he looked.
“How absolutely old I looked,” he said when asked what he was thinking on the play. “I was asking the DBs, I was like, ‘Man, how bad did that look?’ They couldn’t touch me or whatever, but they were just laughing at me. I would have laughed at myself too, but shoot, I guess it worked.”
He also explained what happened, leading to the touchdown pass being caught by himself.
“Well, I was scrambling, then I was trying to throw one low to keep it down and it kind of got batted up,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Of course, here we go.’ It was sitting on some dude’s helmet and I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll take it and try to sneak in.’ I guess it worked. I don’t know. Probably would’ve gotten tattooed, to be honest with you.”
You won’t see it in the playbook but still a nifty play from the Rams quarterback.