The “Thursday Night Football” game between the New York Jets and Houston Texans started slowly. The teams traded punts, penalties and sacks early on and combined for just 96 total yards on 30 plays in the first quarter.
And then the Jets broke a big play to get into the end zone. Except, not really. Because rookie wide receiver Malachi Corley dropped the ball before crossing the goal line on what would have been the first — and potentially easiest — touchdown of his NFL career.
The play was initially ruled a score, but after video review, the result of the play was switched to a fumble and, because the ball rolled out of bounds through the back of the end zone, a touchback that gave the ball back to Houston.
“Definitely frustrated to be honest, and angry at the same time,” Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said of the play, via Pro Football Talk. “But what an amazing opportunity for this kid to grow and learn from. I promise you, 10 years from now when he’s still playing in this league, that will never happen again.”
When asked what he said to Corley after the game, Ulbrich said, “First of all, you can’t do that. Second of all, you owe us one.”
Corley, a third-round pick in this past year’s NFL Draft out of Western Kentucky, has not made much of an impact so far this season. He had played just 8 offensive snaps prior to Thursday night, and had 1 career touch. The second time he got his hands on the ball looked extremely promising, until he made a mistake that has a chance to be remembered for a long, long time.
The miscue also came just a few days after the same thing almost happened to Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts, who was lucky enough to drop the ball just after the nose had crossed the goal line. So unlike Corley, he won’t be remembered alongside players like DeSean Jackson and Leon Lett.
