“In the right place at the right time – I don’t know exactly how that happened,” Sam Hubbard said after his Cincinnati Bengals’ 24-17 win over the Baltimore Ravens. He said what many in the American football league NFL thought: Even the most powerful people are powerless against the script ideas of the gods; it happens as intended, and it happens in ways that few mortals could conceive.
It was 17-17 in the final quarter of the Baltimore vs. Cincinnati game, and the Ravens needed less than two yards into the opposing end zone to turn the game upside down and had four tries to do so. First a failed pass, then followed a run that was too short; just a few more inches, playmaker Tyler Huntley tried it himself. He hopped over his protectors in front of him and stretched as far as he could. But he just didn’t make it to the promised land.
But that wasn’t the end of the play: On the way down, Cincinnati defenseman Logan Wilson smacked the leather egg from Huntley’s hand straight into the hands of Sam Hubbard – who was in the right place at the right time and sent the ball across the field into the Ravens end zone. It was the longest fumble return in playoff history, instead of being 17:24 behind, the Cincinnati Bengals were 24:17 ahead. They defended this lead until the last second, when Ravens receiver James Proche slipped the ball through his fingers in the Bengals end zone and was unable to force an overtime.
The sports gods sometimes come up with crazy ideas. For the quarterfinals they want this duel between the Bengals and the Buffalo Bills – and that’s why they had to intervene 600 kilometers east of Cincinnati. The Bills had led up and then back against the Miami Dolphins, now leading 34-31. The Dolphins marched towards the Bills end zone; since a miracle happened, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said, “This is happening for the first time this season.”
He thought his team had made a new first down at the halfway line and fielded the appropriate formation. Then he heard: No, there are still a few centimeters to go – last attempt to bridge the distance. The Dolphins substituted, albeit too late, and conceded a five-yard penalty. From a distance, the Miami Dolphins couldn’t make a first down – the game was over.
So, as the gods planned and what all people who weren’t fans of the Dolphins or Ravens were hoping for: Bills vs. Bengals.
Two weeks ago when the two teams met, Bills defender Damar Hamlin suffered a heart attack and had to be resuscitated on the field. In the hospital, he was put into a coma and given artificial respiration. He is now on the mend, during the week he visited his colleagues during training and sent them the message before the game that he – as a kind of guardian angel – was with his heart in the playoff game against Miami.
It was impossible to repeat the canceled game
The game was canceled two weeks ago, there was a lot of debate about the league’s decisions – if not about the cancellation, everyone agreed that it was right. It could have been announced earlier instead of leaving the players on the field ready for action for so long. It was also immediately clear that the game would not be rescheduled, the schedule up to the Super Bowl on February 12 is too tight. The question was: how to proceed?
None of the scenarios would have satisfied everyone. There were several possibilities because the Bengals were leading 7:3 at the time of the abandonment – so: couldn’t this result have been the result if the game was abandoned? The Bengals would have been second seeded in the AFC, hosted the Miami Dolphins over the weekend and certainly had home advantage in the quarterfinals. Instead, the NFL decided to annul the game and use the win odds of the playoff participants for the seeding. So it went the other way around: Bills at home against Dolphins, now home against the Bengals.
On the first playoff weekend, there were some indications of force majeure: the comeback of the Jacksonville Jaguars, for example, who were 0:27 behind the Los Angeles Chargers in the first half, made the field goal for a 31:30 victory at the final whistle and for the Travel to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Quarterfinals. Or the gala performance of the New York Giants players Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley in the 31:24 victory over the favored Minnesota Vikings: Jones managed to gain space for a total of 379 yards through passes or his own runs and did not lose the ball; and Barkley scored two touchdowns, among other things.
These were spectacular subplots, as there are in every script, but ultimately only provided the framework for the big drama: the reboot of the Buffalo Bills against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hubbard, Sunday’s match-winner, made it clear that the decision of the powerful people that gave Bills the home right fit perfectly into his personal script: “First, I go into battle with these fellow players everywhere; and second, in all honesty, play I’d rather go away in the playoffs.” So for him, a Sunday evening in Buffalo means being in the right place at the right time.