Antonio Brown scored a touchdown for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl and managed to accomplish the feat while running the wrong route.
According to Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen, Brown did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do on the play.
“A.B. on his touchdown catch was supposed to go down and in and then pop back out. He goes out and pops back in,” Christensen said in an interview with former NFL punter Pat McAfee on YouTube and Sirius XM. “I’m kind of going through the headset like ‘did he run the right route? Did he just do opposite of what he was supposed to do and we hit it for a touchdown?’ That was the case.”
Brown was lined up one-on-one against Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu on the play. He ran a “whip” route, which was supposed to see him initially cut inside before bouncing back toward the sideline. Instead, Brown reversed the action and whipped back inside instead.
Despite the mistake from Brown, Tom Brady managed to compensate for the diversion from the plan and still connected with Brown for the score.
“And that’s where Brady doesn’t get thrown for a loop,” Christensen said. “He just hits the guy. ‘Hey, you get open, I’ll hit you.’ That’s where he’s pretty darn unique. A lot of quarterbacks are like ‘hey, he’s supposed to do this. A to B to C.’ This guy, A.B., goes C to F back to A and he just hits him for a touchdown. It was unbelievable.”