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Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson laid claim to the SportsCenter NFL highlight of the year last week with his flip touchdown against Arizona.
Surely you’ve seen it by now. If you haven’t, check out the video below.
The Ravens saw it too, including safety Bernard Pollard.
“First of all, I knew he was capable of it because he almost cleared me our first game. He almost jumped over me,” Pollard said.
“For a player like that, it’s kind of hard to go after him. You don’t know how you’re going to tackle him, you don’t know how you’re going to approach him.”
So what will the hard-hitting Pollard do if he sees Simpson in flight on Sunday?
“If they want to go airborne, go airborne,” he said. “But I think for us, when they come down, hit them. Make them pay for it. But he’s a great athlete. He has talent out of this world.”
Simpson has had a breakout season for the Bengals this year, and is coming off a huge game against the Ravens.
With A.J. Green out in Baltimore on Nov. 20, Simpson caught eight passes for 152 yards. He has 45 catches for 671 yards and four touchdowns this year.
But it’s the flip that has everyone talking.
Simpson’s running back, Cedric Benson, was still buzzing about it on Wednesday.
“Nobody can believe it,” Benson said. “And then him sticking it at the end, and then doing the little, like what the gymnasts do after they stick it. Like, are you kidding me?”
Benson said he would definitely give the flip a 10.0 in Olympic scoring. Ravens Defensive Coordinator Chuck Pagano joked that he gave it a 9.5 because Simpson’s hand touched the ground.
Ravens 349-pound nose tackle Terrence Cody, who brags about how he can do a flip, conceded that he couldn’t do one like Simpson’s.
“That was awesome,” Cody said. “You’ll never see that again.”
