One of the biggest highlights of this week’s Monday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears came from the start of the second half. Bears’ receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (seen above on a first-half run) took the half-opening kickoff back 104 yards for a touchdown against his old team:
That’s an impressive return by Patterson. And while it comes with some good blocking from his teammates, a big part of this is about his own speed, particularly with blowing through the gap between two would-be tacklers at the start and with the move he makes to get between kicker Dan Bailey and the sideline near the end. Patterson’s speed is significant enough that he’s even able to start celebrating more than 20 yards from the end zone (although it would have been something if he was actually caught).
Patterson has been in the NFL since 2013, when the Vikings chose him with a first-round pick (29th overall). He played for Minnesota from 2013-16, then spent time with the Oakland Raiders (2017) and New England Patriots (2018) before joining the Bears in 2019. He’s shone in a kick return role in Chicago, earning a first-team All-Pro nod and a Pro Bowl selection as a kick returner with a league-high 825 return yards last year. And he definitely made an impact there again Monday.
[NFL on Twitter; photo from Mike DiNovo/USA Today Sports]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.