Todd Gurley's 65th rushing touchdown in the NFL may be the one he regrets for the rest of his career. Gurley's touchdown gave the Atlanta Falcons the lead late against the Detroit Lions, but it was one Atlanta didn't need as the Falcons could have held on to the ball to kick a game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock. If Gurley had stopped his momentum short of going over the goalline, the Falcons could have killed the rest of the game clock before trying a game-winning chip shot field goal.
On the ensuing drive, Matthew Stafford threw the tying touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson with no time left on the clock as Matt Prater kicked the game-winning PAT to give the Lions a stunning 23-22 victory over the Falcons, but Detroit shouldn't have had the opportunity to get the ball back and win the game in the first place.
The Falcons were trailing 16-14 to the Lions and faced a first-and-goal at the Detroit 10-yard line with 1:12 left. The Lions burned their last timeout, so Detroit was going to let Atlanta score if the situation presented itself. Gurley took the first down carry as two Lions players didn't make a strong effort to tackle him in hopes he'd cross the goal line.
When Gurley realized what the Lions were doing, it was too late. Forward momentum prevented Gurley from stopping short of the goal line and running the clock down. Gurley's touchdown put Atlanta up 20-16 with 1:04 left and the Falcons converted the two-point attempt to take a 22-16 advantage -- leaving their defense in charge of stopping Stafford and the Lions.
The Lions took advantage of the opportunity, as Stafford led them on an eight-play, 75-yard drive down the field -- resulting in the Hockenson touchdown catch for 11 yards to tie the game at 22-22. Prater still had to kick the extra point for the win, which he did as Detroit improved to 2-3 while Atlanta fell to 1-5.
If Gurley goes down prior to reaching the end zone, the Falcons could have ran the clock down to the final seconds and had Younghoe Koo kick the winner. Koo was perfect from all three attempts from under 30 yards this season, which would have been the distance of the winning kick since Atlanta was inside the 10-yard line. Atlanta even had one timeout to stop the clock and set up Koo for the winner.
Granted the kick wasn't guaranteed unlike Gurley's score -- and the Falcons defense is somewhat at fault -- but they should have never been put in a situation to win the game when the result was going to come down to a kick. Certainly, Gurley would prefer to have that run back.
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October 26, 2020 at 04:30AM
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LOOK: Todd Gurley costs Falcons by scoring TD after failing to stop his momentum, leads to wild Lions comeback - CBS Sports
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