During the first half of Monday's game against the Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford left football fans baffled by attempting a shovel pass while in the process of being sacked.
To avoid taking a big loss of yards, Stafford lightly tossed the ball a few yards in front of him resulting in an incompletion. After the game, the veteran quarterback explained his thought process in the moment, confirming to reporters that the shovel pass was intentional.
"I felt him on my back, I knew [Cooper Kupp] was right there, I could see his cleats looking down and I just dumped it at his cleats. I was gonna be hurt in a bad way if they tried to say that wasn't a shovel pass. That's exactly what I tried to do," said Stafford.
Matthew Stafford on reversal of fumble returned for TD: “I was going to be hurt in a bad way if they were trying to say that wasn’t a shovel pass. That was exactly what I was trying to do.” pic.twitter.com/V4hj2f9Gcv
— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams) January 14, 2025
"I'm doing everything I can to avoid negatives. Throw a ball away, get a ball out quick, dump one at somebody's feet. Second-and-10 is a whole lot better than second-and-14 after a sack, or whatever it would've been."
It was certainly a savvy move from the veteran. While Vikings fans thought they'd secured a scoop-and-score, Stafford pleaded his case to the refs that the motion he made with his arm was indeed an attempt at a shovel pass. Officials reviewed the play and confirmed that Stafford was making some sort of throwing motion, enough to overturn the ruling on the field.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Matthew Stafford Explains Unusual Shovel Pass That Prevented Sack vs. Vikings.