What the: A.J. Brown was all of us reacting to DeAndre Hopkins’ TD catch
Sep 14, 2021, 4:37 PM
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins (10) catches a touchdown pass as he is defended by Tennessee Titans cornerback Jackrabbit Jenkins (20) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
(AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
Tennessee Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown has seen a lot of possessions of football.
So, when his team has the Arizona Cardinals on third and goal from the six-yard line and the pocket begins to collapse for quarterback Kyler Murray, he knows the odds of a stop have become pretty darn high.
In video and audio captured by NFL Films, Brown is shown standing up and holding his arms up, as if to signal he’s expecting a stop. With the game at 3-0 Cardinals and the Titans coming off a fumble, holding Arizona to three points in the red zone again for the second straight trip would have been a nice momentum boost. It was also nearly a touchdown already after the Cardinals’ Corey Peters was initially ruled in the endzone on the recovery, so it was a big swing.
But as the saying goes, big-time players make big-time plays.
A.J. Brown couldn't believe his eyes watching that @DeAndreHopkins catch. 😂@1kalwaysopen_ | @AZCardinals pic.twitter.com/fFYm33unNr
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) September 14, 2021
Murray makes just as good of an effort as Hopkins, creating space and rifling the ball in the wideout’s catch radius, where Hopkins improbably makes the snag and taps both feet down before he’s pushed out of bounds.
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Brown goes through several different emotions seeing the play, the first one being disbelief that Hopkins got inbounds. His eyes immediately went toward the stadium’s big screen to see the replay.
Upon seeing it, you can see Brown’s face turns to a, “Ooo, that’s nasty” type of appreciation a fellow wide receiver can have for the acrobatic maneuver as he leans back into the bench.
Brown then accepts that Hopkins did indeed just pull that off, with a quick shake of his head and nod to Hopkins’ prowess.
The clip ends with Brown telling Julio Jones, one of the best pass-catchers the game has seen the past decade, that he needs to get his feet down like that. The two share a laugh off that, which is sometimes all you can do when greatness is on display, even from the opposition.
