The Titans scored an uncommonly slick and cool touchdown in the third quarter of Monday night’s game against the Cowboys. On second and two from the Cowboys seven- yard line, Marcus Mariota took a shotgun snap and handed it to Dion Lewis, who was immediately slammed to the turf by DeM arcus Lawrence for a four- yard loss. Except, no, somehow Jonnu Smith was then seen carrying the ball into the end zone. What?




The key to this play—which, after repeated viewings, I feel confident describing as a shovel pass—is just an unbelievably strong and slick fake handoff to Lewis. Look at this shit:


It looks like Mariota is faking out Lewis as much as he is Dallas’s defense. That ball is in there, and then Mariota is forcibly ripping it back out at the last possible instant, somehow with the dexterity to then flip it in one smooth motion to Smith, rumbling up the middle. That’s just cool as shit, even if I now have a headache from trying to make sense of it.

