This stat shows just how impressive Gibson's TD vs. Bills was originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Football Team didn't exactly have many positives to take from Sunday's Week 3 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, but Antonio Gibson's 73-yard touchdown is certainly one play the team can look back on fondly.
In the second quarter of Sunday's game, Gibson caught a screen pass from Taylor Heinicke and made multiple defenders miss before diving for the pylon to cap off the longest touchdown of the season for Washington this far.
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As impressive as the touchdown looks at first glance, Gibson's six-pointer is even more impressive when considering how he was able to pop off a home-run play on a design that was only supposed to pick up a small chunk of yards.
According to the NFL's Next Gen Stats, Gibson was only expected to total 18 yards after the catch on that play. When the running back crossed the plane of the end zone, the running back had just tallied 78 yards after the catch. Gibson finished with 60 more yards after the catch than expected on that touchdown, which is the most of any play across the NFL thus far this season.
As Gibson was racing towards the end zone, he thought, just for a second, that he might not have been able to score.
"I saw [Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White] coming and I couldn't kick it into another gear," Gibson said postgame. "I told myself, 'lean into him, then dive.' I was bigger than him, so I knew he wasn't going to be able to push me too far. So I leaned into him and extended for the touchdown."
The touchdown, officially a 73-yard pass play from Heinicke to Gibson, was the running back's longest score of his NFL career thus far. The play was also technically Heinicke's longest TD pass of his career, even though the throw traveled just a few yards in the air.
While Gibson is certainly proud of his touchdown, he knows Washington has plenty of room for improvement after three weeks.
"Right now, we're not where we're supposed to be," Gibson said. "Far from it. But, it's a long season. [We] just got to go to work next week before the game and fix what we need to fix."
