Dolphins guard Rob Hunt, on wacky non-TD: ‘I don’t know what went through my head'

MIAMI GARDENS — The perfect part about the most imperfect, stupefying play Thursday night — one that the man who created and starred in it was at a loss to explain?

Officially, it never happened.

There were 65,948 at Hard Rock Stadium who saw it. A national television audience saw it. Even heard the color analyst, Troy Aikman, call it “the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

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But officially, the stat sheet reads “no play,” with a footnote saying the Dolphins were penalized 5 yards for the craziness.

So, the thing you thought you saw but can’t believe you saw will live in Dolphins lore as a ghost.

The non-play occurred in the Dolphins’ 22-10 shocker over the Baltimore Ravens, with Miami facing a third-and-goal on the Ravens’ 6 with 13 minutes left. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw a screen pass to running back Myles Gaskin … but the ball never reached him.

Instead, Rob Hunt essentially intercepted a pass from the guy he’s paid to protect. Before anyone could process what happened, this 6-foot-6, 327-pound man was rumbling toward the end zone, capping the play with a twisting, arching attempt to break the plane of the end zone over a defender who sent him landing on his head.

It appeared Hunt may have broken the plane before the ball hit the ground and popped out, triggering a scramble. One thing that wasn’t in question: a flag was on the ground. Hunt is a right guard, so when he touched the ball, he did so illegally.

Hunt sauntered into the postgame interview room knowing the anonymity offensive linemen crave was out of the question. His name already was trending on social media, something needling teammates happily pointed out to him.

“Don’t kill me too bad,” he told reporters.

The laugh session was on.

Hunt was asked if he forgot linemen can’t catch passes.

“No,” he said. “You know what? Yeah, I did. I did. I really did. Yeah. That’s embarrassing. It’s all over the internet, too. I don’t know what went through my head.”

Why try to catch the ball?

Hunt took a deep breath.

“I wasn’t trying to, actually,” he said. “I just saw it and it was third down. I was like, ‘All right, just try.’ ”

You've got the ball, you may as well ...

Once he caught the pass, he was in too deep.

“I got the ball in my hands, I tried to score,” Hunt said.

But he didn’t put six points on the board.

“The Ravens did a really good job defending the play,” he said.

Asked about his thundering summersault, Hunt corrected a reporter.

“That wasn’t a summersault, he got me pretty good,” Hunt said. “I almost broke my neck.”

Maybe so, but Tagovailoa was impressed. Sort of.

“I think Rob is just trying to be an athlete,” Tagovailoa said.

For the record, as Aikman pointed out, it was a remarkable bit of athleticism for Hunt to be landing on his head and still have the wherewithal to reach for the goal line.

‘Never seen anything like it'

Hunt knows this is one he’ll never live down. Among the comments in the postgame locker room: “That’s a great play, man. That was tight. I’ve never seen (anything like it).’ ”

The underlying, nagging feeling for Hunt is what coaches will say.

“It’s a penalty,” Hunt said. “So I’ll definitely hear about it in meetings.”

He’s right.

"Great effort. Incredible effort," coach Brian Flores said in a deadpan, sarcastic tone that made it clear he wasn't as amused as everybody else. "It’s a penalty, though. Maybe we’ll put a play in for him."

Hunt said he has been in end zones before. Scored a couple of touchdowns in high school, including a scoop-and-score on a blocked punt.

The silver lining for Hunt is that even after the Ravens drove 99 yards to cut the deficit to 15-10 with 4:12 left, the Dolphins responded with a six-play, 75-yard drive of their own to ice it. Tagovailoa scored on a 1-yard run.

“It was awesome,” Hunt said. “Lamar (Jackson), you see the stats and everything he’s been doing the last couple of weeks, coming back and winning games. We all see that, but we were confident in ourselves to close out the game. We wanted to put it on us up front. We wanted to put it on Tua’s hands, on the receivers’ hands.”

The receivers who are paid to catch passes.

Legally.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: What? I can't catch a pass? Dolphins' Rob Hunt stars in craziest play