beautiful mistake - joe burrow

88

Joe could tell all morning that Elle was in a good mood because her family would be at the stadium today. All morning she was already bouncing around the house with a huge grin, doing countless pirouettes as she packed her bag and smooching him half to death as he was the first to leave the house.

He also heard her laughing at the preparations at the stadium before he even entered the room where the ATs were taping the players and noted with a grin that she was dancing around the couch where T.B. was currently lying.

The next time he saw her was after he had been standing on the grass with the players for a few minutes warming up and she had entered the court with the ATs. Unobtrusively, she gave him a smile before turning to Nick, murmuring something to him, and then walking with him toward the tiers.

Joe could only watch briefly as Nick and she greeted her family, who stood at the edge of the bleachers, about three feet above their heads. He recognized Ian in his little Bengals jersey and had to grin. Nick quickly snapped a photo of the family before they waved goodbye and went back to work.

It started off very well. The Bengals got pretty close to the Steelers' end zone on just a few plays and everyone was very much in the game. It was the second play. They had 7 yards to go to get to the Steelers 1 yard line.

"White 80" Joe's voice rang through the cheers of the fans. "Set hut"

Immediately the ball landed in Joe's hands and Elle held her breath outside as she crossed her fingers and watched spellbound as Joe took a few steps backward to survey the situation and thus his receiving stations.

Elle could already see the sack coming when one of the Steelers' defenders was suddenly just an arm's length away from Joe, but suddenly Joe deftly spun out of the danger zone and took off running.

Three opponents were around him as he got closer to the end zone. Just then one of them threw himself at Joe with full force, but it was already too late. Joe bounced his entire body on the ground, but he was in the end zone, the ball still in his hands.

"Touchdown!" Elle shouted happily, almost jumping over Nick with joy, who caught her just in the nick of time. "Slow down, kiddo. Or you'll hurt your shoulder even more" he grinned at her. "don't worry, it's back in full working order" Elle assured him, demonstrating that statement by circling her arm.

The offense had arrived at the bench by now and Elle really had to resist the inner feeling to run to Joe, jump into his arms and congratulate him for his first rushing touchdown this year.

Especially when he lifted his head and gave her a triumphant smile. She quickly grabbed one of the granola bars and hoped eating would keep her body from doing that for now. 

The Bengals continued to dominate the game. The Steelers' drive ended within a minute and a half with an interception by Eli Apple, who returned the ball inside the Steelers' five.

But even though there were so few yards between the Bengals and their second touchdown in the first quarter, they failed to get into the end zone and went up by only 3 points on Evan's field goal.

This time the Steelers' drive also went better and they marched forward to the Bengals' 22 yard line, but the defense held firm and did not allow a yard on first two downs. On third down, however, the ball flew dangerously close to the Bengals' end zone, where Eli easily tackled Claypool and denied the Steelers a touchdown.

The field goal sat, however. The Bengals got the ball again, the final minute of the first quarter began and the offense fought back to get on the Steelers' side before the first quarter ended 3-10.

It was just 45 seconds before the Bengals' next touchdown was on the scoreboard. On second down, Joe tricked the defense, getting the ball to Ja'Marr, who with blocking help from his teammates, pumped his way past 10 yards.