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January 13, 2008

Big Gain, Big Embarrassment

Donte' Stallworth experienced emotional highs and lows on the same play in the fourth quarter.

It was a 53-yard catch-and-run play that set up the Pats' final points, a field goal. The catching part was just fine. It was the running part that tripped him up, literally, when he seemingly had nothing but an open field and the end zone ahead of him for what would have been a 76-yard scoring strike.

But Stallworth took a peek at the Jumbotron, and the next thing he knew, he was on the turf at Gillette Stadium, victim of a shoe-string tackle by the Jaguars' Rashean Mathis. It was an embarrassing moment for Stallworth, and his teammates didn't give him a pass. Nor did friends and family from his home area of Sacramento, Calif.

"I've got 15 text (messages) from home," said Stallworth ruefully. "The guys in the locker room are all over me. It hurts, but we won.

The play was a conceived bit of improvisation.

"I was running a hitch route, but the (defender) jumped it and when I looked back I saw (QB) Tom (Brady) moving in the pocket a bit so I took off up the field. Tom made a good play," said Stallworth, whose change in routes put him behind Mathis.

Stallworth admitted taking a peek at the Jumbotron, which he said cost him the TD.

"I just wanted to see where he (Mathis) was," said Stallworth. "I was too worried about him instead of just running. I didn't press my turbo button. The end result wasn't what I wanted, but we won the game."

-- STEVEN KRASNER

Posted by Steven Krasner  at 12:45 AM | Permalink