You’ve probably never seen a basket miss like this. Certainly not in the NFL.
With the New England Patriots holding a 17-7 lead in the first half of Monday’s game against the Giants, New York had a chance to cut the lead to one possession. Tight end Theo Johnson couldn’t latch on to a contested deep pass in the end zone from Jaxson Dart, so the Giants settled for a 47-yard field goal attempt by Younghoe Koo.
Advertisement
But there was one big problem with Koo’s effort at the basket. He failed to hit the ball. Instead, he kicked the field. Seriously.
Here’s what it looked like via overhead camera from the end zone. From this perspective, it wasn’t initially clear what had happened. Koo ended up punting the ball, and no one from the Patriots came close, let alone blocked it.
But the ball was never kicked and holder Jamie Gillan grabbed it before being tackled behind the line of scrimmage.
The secondary camera angle tells the story.
Koo’s right toe dug into the turf a few inches behind the ball and got stuck. He never touched the ball. It was like a big hit with a pitching wedge that lodged itself in the dirt.
Dart watched in disbelief as the Giants came away with no points.
Advertisement
This effort didn’t even count as an attempt in the box score. Instead, the Giants’ possession ended in a turnover on downs.
At least for Koo, he wasn’t hit with a failure in the stat book. But that was little consolation for the Giants, who continued to trail by 10 against a Patriots team that was taking control of the game.
