![\"Dec](\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/.image\/w_3840,q_auto:good,c_limit\/Mzk6MDAwMDAwMDAwMzYzMDM0\/nfl-arizona-cardinals-at-cincinnati-bengals-363034.jpg?arena_f_auto\")
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Cody Ford is not the first NFL player to record a 21-yard reception, but he is the first NFL player of his kind to get that far down the field after catching the ball.<\/p>\n
Per NFL senior researcher Dante Koplowitz-Fleming, Ford became the heaviest player in league history to have a play exceeding 20 yards from scrimmage at 345 pounds with his 21-yard catch-and-run during the\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals\u2019\u00a037-14 win\u00a0over the\u00a0Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen big man carries, fumble recoveries, and goal line catches for touchdowns, but never a catch-and-run quite like this from one of the biggest players on the team. The funny part is Ford wasn\u2019t even the second-heaviest player on the field for this play. Starting offensive tackles Orlando Brown Jr. and Amarius Mims are each 350 pounds according to Bengals.com.<\/p>\n
No matter his weight, he certainly covered a lot more ground than anyone expected. You can thank what was going through his mind for that, as well as what he didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor told reporters after the game he wanted Ford to hit the deck pretty much right as he caught the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted him just to go down,\u201d\u00a0Taylor said. \u201cGet the four [yards], go down, put us in the second-and-6, and he just kept breaking tackles. That was pretty impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was not made known to Ford, and once the ball was in his hands, no coaching point was going to reach him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he would have told me that (he wanted me to go down), I probably would have did it,\u201d\u00a0Ford told The Athletic\u2019s Paul Dehner Jr. \u201cHe didn\u2019t expose that to me, so I thought I had free rein to do whatever. If I would have had to shake somebody, I would have tried.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept running. I had my head down because I was kind of treating it like a 40-yard dash.\u201d<\/p>\n
And because of that mindset, we have a play for the all-time Bengals highlight reel.<\/p>\n
Ford had not touched the football since recovering two fumbles as a rookie back in 2019. Barring another record-setting play, he will never experience a touch quite like this. Thank goodness he didn\u2019t know what his coach wanted from him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cody Ford is not the first NFL player to record a 21-yard reception, but he is the first NFL player of his kind to get that far… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"\n