‘It feels good to go 118’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2009 (5845 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jovon JOHNSON was just saying the other day that returning interceptions for touchdowns was tops on his list of favourite things to do on a football field. Missed field goals will work, too.

Johnson took a Noel Prefontaine missed field goal 118 yards for a major on Friday night to break open a tight game between the Bombers and Edmonton Eskimos that ended in a 27-17 victory for Winnipeg.

“Hey man, it don’t matter to me. Any time I get a chance to return and score, I’ll take it. I just went back there and did my job and I commend the guys for making the blocks,” said Johnson. “Once I got into the open field, I had two blockers in front of me and one guy to beat. They started celebrating a little too early and I had to point at them to make a block. It feels good to go 118.”

The Johnson touchdown put the Bombers ahead 20-10 and they never let the Esks back in the game. Conversely, had Prefontaine made the field goal, the score would have been tied at 13-13. Johnson’s play was the quintessential game-changer.

“It’s a 10-point swing. Any time that happens, it’s tough to come back from for the other team,” Johnson said. “Coach has been telling us all year that any time we can take a missed field goal back for a touchdown, it breaks the other team’s back.”

Johnson gathered the ball up in his own end zone after Prefontaine missed wide left and immediately darted to the middle of the field. The speedster out of Erie, Pa., broke three tackles early in the run and found a slim seam as he hit his high gear while angling towards the sideline in front of his own team’s bench.

As the former Pittsburgh Steeler found open field, his teammates and coaches began to jump up and down and look for flags on the field and found none.

Near the Edmonton 30-yard line, Johnson started to fade a bit and looked behind him to see if any Eskimos were closing in. At the same time, Johnson’s lead blocker, Jonathan Hefney, started to celebrate while the two were running downfield. Johnson waved at Hefney and pointed at Prefontaine, who was moving in for the tackle, and the blocker turned just in time to crumple the kicker and send Johnson in for the quick six.

“When we were flying down the field, I thought, ‘Damn, this is gonna be a touchdown,’ and I went to ‘five him,” said Hefney. “I started to celebrate and I wanted to give him five during the play. Soon as I looked at him, he said, ‘There’s a man right there.’ I said, ‘S..t,’ and turned and blocked him. If he hadn’t have said anything, I wouldn’t have seen him.”

The clock began running with 9:14 left in the third quarter to start the play and was stopped with just 8:44 left remaining after the score.

The missed field goal return was the second longest in team history with Albert Johnson’s 122-yard major back in July of 2000 when the Bombers lost 51-49 to the Edmonton Eskimos.

After entering the end zone, Johnson pulled an old-school move and immediately stopped and placed the ball on the ground as if to say, “I’ve done this before and I’ll do it again.” The 26-year-old turned around and started to slowly jog towards his bench and was mobbed by his teammates.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca