1. Knile Davis’s 106 yard kickoff return on the opening play of the 2015 playoffs
On January 9, 2016, the NFL Playoffs for the 2015 season commenced with the wildcard game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans in Houston. On the first kickoff, Chiefs return specialist and running back Knile Davis received the football six yards deep in his end zone. He opted to run it out. 11 seconds later he was in the Texans’ endzone, having accomplished the longest kickoff return in NFL playoff history. It was also the fastest touchdown in playoff history.
The astonished Texans never recovered. By halftime they trailed 13-0, and the game finished with a score of 30-0. The Chiefs recorded four interceptions throughout the defeat. It was the first time the Texans have failed to score in a game on their home field. In the end, the only points the Chiefs needed for their first playoff win in 26 years came on the opening kickoff .
By the way, Davis’s kickoff return was not the longest of his career. In his rookie season, 2013, he returned a kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown against the Denver Broncos, matching the second longest in NFL history. The record is 109 yards, presently held by three players.
2. Malcolm Butler’s goal line interception in Super Bowl XLIX
Super Bowl XLIX featured the Seattle Seahawks, victors of the prior year, versus the New England Patriots, who had not won a title for 10 years. Played on February 1, 2015, the game paired a Seattle defense they termed the Legion of Boom against New England’s powerful attack. In the end however, it was New England’s defense which finished the winning play. Seattle took a 10 point lead in the third quarter, but the Patriots scored two touchdowns in the fourth, giving them a 28-24 advantage late in the game.
With barely two minutes and two seconds left, the Seahawks weren’t done. They drove from their own 20 yard line to the Patriot one, where they faced second and goal with 26 seconds to go. Inexplicably to some fans, the Seahawks called a pass play, and Malcolm Butler intercepted the ball. The play did not conclude the game.
A penalty for excessive celebration made the chance of a safety on the Patriots real. But an encroachment penalty on Seattle pushed the ball back, and a resulting scuffle led to a personal foul on the Seahawks, forcing them back further, and enabling Tom Brady adequate space to take a knee and run out the clock.
3. The Ghost to the Post
On Christmas Eve, 1977, the Raiders, who then called Oakland home, played the Baltimore Colts in an AFC Divisional Playoff game. The game seesawed in the second half, and late in the fourth quarter Oakland trailed the Colts by three. They grabbed the ball with little under three minutes remaining on their own 30-yard line. Raider quarterback Ken Stabler needs to bring the squad into at least field goal range to force OT.
He got them there with a 42-yard pass to tight end Dave Casper (known to teammates as “the Ghost,” a la Casper the Friendly Ghost) on a play the Raiders named “Ghost to the Post.” Casper changed his route and made an over-the-head grab of the high-arching throw which placed the Raiders in field goal range. The Raiders knotted the game a few plays later, forcing overtime. In the second overtime, Casper grabbed a 10 yard pass from Stabler which won the game, but it would not have been possible if not for the athletic reception he made late in the fourth quarter.
4. Ben Roethlisberger’s touchdown throw to Santonio Holmes
Super Bowl XLIII (43 for those puzzled by Roman numerals) is famous for, among other things, being the final appearance in the television booth by the late John Madden. It also included a 100 yard interception return for a score by Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Despite that play and other heroics, with 2:37 left to play, Pittsburgh trailed the Arizona Cardinals 23-20.
Led by Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh moved 78 yards, with 73 of those yards through catches made by Santonio Holmes. The last play of the drive was a six-yard connection in the back corner of the end zone, when Holmes produced one of the most amazing receptions in NFL playoff history. Some fans considered the game itself the finest in Super Bowl history, however not many of them are Arizona supporters. The play handed Pittsburgh their sixth Super Bowl triumph, making them the only club to attain that level of ongoing success.
5. Bart Starr’s quarterback sneak to win the Ice Bowl
New Year’s Eve, 1967, featured the Dallas Cowboys meet the Green Bay Packers in a repeat of the prior season’s NFL Championship Game. It remains the coldest game in NFL history. At game time the weather in cold Green Bay was minus 12 degrees. It became known as the Ice Bowl. The mechanism designed to protect Lambeau Field’s playing field from freezing failed. Several players got frostbite.
Some players assumed the game would be postponed. Officials pondered delaying the game, until they realised the forecast suggested the following day would be considerably colder. The game went on, however the pregame performance by the Wisconsin-La Crosse marching band was canceled when the musicians’ lips froze to their mouthpieces.
The contest was hard-fought. Late in the fourth quarter, with Dallas leading 17-14, Green Bay performed a 67-yard drive, getting them to the one-yard line (really about a foot from the goal line) with 16 seconds left. People peering at the scoreboard could see the time left, yard line, down, score, and the temperature, minus 20 degrees.
On the following play, Packer guard Jerry Kramer shoved the feared Cowboy defensive tackle Jethro Pugh off the line of scrimmage and quarterback Bart Starr plunged over for the score and a Packer triumph. It was their third consecutive NFL Championship.