For the fourth time this season, NFL fans woke up to football as the league continues to expand their overseas games in Europe with a massive tilt between AFC contenders in Frankfurt on Sunday morning.
The Kansas City Chiefs were the nominal home team in Frankfurt, playing “host” to the Miami Dolphins in a battle of 6-2 teams that could very well be a preview of an AFC title game next January. What was billed as a matchup of two explosive offenses became a defensive struggle after the Chiefs scored on the opening possession of the game, with a lot of punts between the two sides for most of the first half. Kansas City finally got things going again on their final offensive drive of the half, marching down the field for a second TD and taking a ton of time off of the clock in the process.
The Dolphins then tried to get their offense kickstarted in the two-minute drill and looked to be doing just that as they moved into Chiefs territory quickly with a couple big plays to Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, but just as things started to look up, disaster struck. On a screen pass to Hill, Trent McDuffie hit him immediately, stripped him of the ball so Mike Edwards could scoop it up, and then once Hill wrapped up Edwards, he pitched it back to Bryan Cook who ran it all the way down the sidelines for a wild touchdown.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!!?! pic.twitter.com/DnfmGOunnL
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) November 5, 2023
The booth quickly reviewed the play and determined it was in fact a catch and fumble, as Hill had possession long enough while getting backed up before fumbling to count as a catch. It was a huge swing in the game, as the Dolphins certainly looked like they were going to at least get themselves on the board in some way, only to see the Chiefs tack on a third score before the half to take a 21-0 lead into the break.