Larry Fitzgerald (center) discusses AWS and NFL partnership during a panel at re:Invent.Page overview
Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots: Nyheim Hines’ 96-yard, kickoff-return touchdown
As Fitzgerald puts it, this play “blew the top off of a building that has no top.” Hines’ return touchdown for the Bills tapped into one of NFL’s newest Next Gen Stats. The expected kickoff return yards model predicts the yards a kick returner is expected to gain once they field the kickoff. For this play, the expected return was 21 yards—which Hines exceeded by 75 yards. This was the first play for the Bills after their teammate Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field a week prior. And whether a Bills fan or not, “There was not a dry eye in Buffalo,” said Fitzgerald.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a play quite like this,” Fitzgerald said about this end-of-game scramble by the Patriots. On the last play of the game, in a bizarre move, Patriots’ Jakobi Meyers tossed the ball back toward midfield in an attempt to keep the play alive. Raiders’ Jones recovered the ball and ran it right into the end zone for the win. Especially impressive was Jones’ top speed of 16.69 miles per hour. “I didn’t know he could move like that,” Fitzgerald said. “My man was out there cookin’ on this play!”
"This play completely changed the dynamic of that game," Fitzgerald said. "Nobody would have ever expected something like that to happen." It’s not every Sunday you see a defensive end span the entire field with the ball. With a tied game and 11 minutes left on the clock, the Ravens had the ball on the 1-yard line, looking to score. Ravens’ quarterback Tyler Huntley lost the ball, allowing Hubbard to tip the score in the Bengals’ favor. Next Gen Stats charted that the win probability for the game increased by 41.8 percentage points as a result of Hubbard’s fumble return.
Widely considered to be the catch of the year, Vikings’ wide receiver Jefferson’s one-handed grab under pressure is also Fitzgerald’s top pick for the moment of the year. The stellar snag had just a 28.8% completion probability according to Next Gen Stats. This wasn’t Jefferson’s only big play of the game—he ended the game with nine receptions under 50% completion probability, the most in a game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016). No other receiver has had more than six in a game. “Out of this world” is what Fitzgerald called Jefferson’s 32-yard, one-handed catch. "There’s no way that guy is human."
