It's not often when fullbacks find the end zone. Usually, we're the ones leading someone else in there.
So when I scored six against Philadelphia last week, it was definitely a high point, but in a whole frenzy of the game, it almost passed by too quickly.
My last touchdown last year against Tampa Bay was a big event — the catch, the run, the hurdle, the jump toward the goal line, the final lunge, looking for the touchdown marker, throwing up the hands in the air, doing the Ovie Matrix. There was a lot going on.
This one seemed to happen so fast where I just wrapped around Matt Ryan, a defender held me and I thought it was over. I thought he was going to clamp down. I just kept pumping my legs and finally got loose.
Then, I saw Matt.
I didn't know if he was going to run it in or throw it to me, so it was in that gray area. The defender in front of me rushed toward Matt and Matt just lobbed it over his head.
For some reason, I jump when I catch balls, so I just jumped and got in the fetal position, waiting for a hit, got two feet on the ground and got knocked out of bounds.
Right before I jumped, I saw all these yellow flags and I immediately assumed Matt had crossed the line of scrimmage, so I didn't want to get back up and start celebrating until I knew that it wasn't an offensive holding, Matt crossing the line of scrimmage or something like that.
Knowing me and being a fullback, that stuff would happen to me. It'd be my luck.
I didn't know I scored until halfway back to the sideline. My teammates were like, "Hey! You scored!" My only reaction was, "Are you sure? Are you sure I scored?"
I started celebrating, but I wanted to go back on the field and celebrate — spike the ball, do something — because I heard it from everyone:
"You didn't do anything. You're a fullback. You're not supposed to act like you've been there before because you haven't been there several times, so you're supposed to do something."
I'll save that for the next touchdown.
The atmosphere on the sideline was through the roof. It was a smorgasbord of joy and relief and happiness and excitement. Guys were thrilled to get that win, especially after what happened in Chicago and not having won a couple of games going back to last year. Getting the win, having that feeling and coming in on Victory Monday — all those things are something we definitely appreciate.
We're trying to keep the momentum that we had from last Sunday's win rolling because we know that winning in this league is not easy. We love the outcome of last week, but last week's win doesn't guarantee us anything this week so we have to prepare just as hard and do everything we did last week and then some.
Tampa Bay is not going to give us the win, and we have to earn it.
