When it comes to trick plays, it does not get much prettier than the flea flicker the New England Patriots dropped on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
Up 10-6, Tom Brady and the Patriots decided they wanted to extend the lead and get the fans involved. The perfect solution was a flea flicker to Chris Hogan.
The NFL captured the big play:
🚨FLEA FLICKER 🚨
Perfectly executed trick play from the @Patriots. 💰 PITvsNE #NFLPlayoffs https://t.co/oykVq6TB0c
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) January 23, 2017
The reaction on the field was about what most would expect:
FLEA FLICKER! pic.twitter.com/b6TgZUH76l
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 23, 2017
Pittsburgh had been having serious coverage lapses the entire game, which would explain why the play worked so well and Hogan scored his second touchdown of the first half.
It is pretty rare to see a flea flicker work out so well. This would explain why Twitter reacted in a funny way to the touchdown:
Me real-time during that flea flicker pic.twitter.com/LKrO7aSpfN
— Del Reid 🦬 (@DelReid) January 23, 2017
Hey, a flea flicker that worked perfectly. Usually the QB gets the ball back and fires it into triple coverage.
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) January 23, 2017
For those counting, this was Hogan’s first-ever game with multiple touchdowns. It was also Brady’s 60th career postseason touchdown pass.
Quite an epic time to hit both marks, really. Though in the heat of the moment, the only thing Brady and Hogan were thinking about was distancing themselves from the Steelers and advancing to a Super Bowl.
With even trick plays working out that well, New England looked well on the way.
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