beautiful mistake - joe burrow

103

Shaking her head, Elle looked at the halftime score on the stadium's big screen. 10-21, they were down again against the Chiefs by 11 points at halftime. Eli's block on Hill in the final seconds had even prevented the Chiefs from scoring more.

Actually, it looked partly not bad what the team did, but in the decisive moments, suddenly the last step was missing to get a new 1st down or a touchdown.

Only once had Samaje powered through the defense and scored the touchdown that brought the score to 10 after Evan had already kicked a field goal in the first quarter.

But Mahomes and his boys were well in the game. While Elle felt the Bengals' defense was getting stronger with each drive, they had only been able to stop a couple of Chiefs' plays so far.

"Do you think we can still do it?" Nick nudged Elle questioningly as they ran back onto the field after halftime, which they had spent in the locker room taking care of a few players.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure" Elle shrugged.

"Why? Because we were down by 11 last time too and still won?" Nick asked.

"And because, like Zac said, we're a second-half team. We always play better there. And because Joe is sure we're going to win and go to the Super Bowl" she added.

"And Joe is always right?" Nick grinned. "No, but when he wants something bad enough, he fights for it tooth and nail. He doesn't give up" Elle replied grinning. "Oh, right. That's how he got you" Nick winked at her with a grin.

The third quarter started well, although the Bengals only scored with a field goal after being just a few yards from the end zone, the defense kept the Chiefs pretty much in check, so they didn't even get into field goal range.

There were 2 minutes left to play in the third quarter when suddenly it happened. Mahomes threw the ball and Elle could just make out the tall, broad figure in white uniform who suddenly shot up and caught the ball. B.J Hill had intercepted it!

"Let's go. Come on, boys. Do something with it!" she clenched her hand into a fist triumphantly, as Nick gave her a quick hug to his side in celebration. Joe had immediately grabbed his helmet and was ready to take over the game with his offense.

They were at the Chiefs' 30 yard line and after the first down brought only 5 yards with one run, on second down Joe's pass to Ja'Marr sat perfectly and got the Bengals to the five yard line.

The first two plays didn't work and Elle was again worried they wouldn't be able to cover the few yards again and end up with just a field goal again. But the Burrow-Chase combination struck.

Ja'Marr was still struggling with his defender when Joe threw the ball in his direction, but just as the pass reached him, he broke free and jumped up. The ball flew into his hand and he grabbed it, clawing it tightly as two arms wrapped around his body, but before his opponent could drag him out of bounds, Ja'Marr landed with both feet on the ground.

"Touchdown!" Elle cried out, wringing her hands in the air before clapping happily and dancing the griddy Ja'Marr had taught her.

They would go for the two-point conversion. If they scored the two points, it would be 21-21. They'd be back in the game, with a chance to win it again, to move on to the Super Bowl.

Elle crossed her fingers as she watched tensely as Joe got the ball. She scanned the end zone, Ja'Marr was covered, but there ran an orange helmet with no cover. Joe seemed to have seen him too, because suddenly the ball flew through the air and landed perfectly in the arms of Trent Taylor, who turned and took the final step into the end zone. The team cheered, this was the tie, this was the second chance to change everything here.