Review: 329-pound Linval Joseph’s touchdown is the most patriotic play in the NFL this season

Is there anything more American than an extremely large man scoring a touchdown? Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Linval Joseph is listed at 6’4, 329 pounds — 13 pounds heavier than any other player on the Vikings’ roster. So his 64-yard fumble recovery touchdown in a win over the Eagles was patriotism dialed up to full blast.

If you didn’t stand up and sing “God Bless America” at the top of your lungs when you saw it happen, you weren’t celebrating the occasion correctly.

It’s not too late. Here’s the play in its full glory:

Are you done singing? Okay cool. Now let’s break it all down:

My favorite part of the touchdown is that Joseph seems to accelerate almost the entire play. He catches the fumble out of the air at the 36-yard line and hits full speed about 50 yards later.

By the time he hits fourth gear, nobody has a chance at catching him. Just look at Eagles running back Jay Ajayi. Yes, he gets tangled up with Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks, but he’s still making up zero ground on Joseph.

That’s because Joseph was MOVING. Via ESPN:

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Joseph reached a max speed of 18.2 miles per hour on his fumble return touchdown, which occurred with 4:24 remaining in the second quarter.

To put into context how fast Joseph ran to the end zone, Jets safety Marcus Maye reached a max speed of 18.3 miles per hour on his 104-yard interception return that wasn’t a touchdown against the Broncos, according to Next Gen Stats.

Reminder: Joseph is 329 pounds!

Joseph’s job is not to run 64 yards at any point in time. He’s supposed to move other 300-pound men out of the way to stop the run and maybe find his way into the backfield for a sack.

The touchdown Sunday was his first in nine NFL seasons and 118 career games. So he was understandably gassed on the sideline, but he was gassed as stylish as possible.

That’s a look.

And because the internet is a wonderful place, it also spawned some great memes — including one that caught the eye of Joseph:

Awesome big man touchdown aside, let’s also take a second to appreciate how clutch the play was for Minnesota. The Vikings were fresh off back-to-back losses and the defense had given up 94 points in the last three weeks.

A Week 5 game against the defending Super Bowl champions threatened to drop the Vikings to 1-3-1.

Late in the second quarter, the Eagles were driving with a chance to take a lead into halftime. Then Joseph rumbled his way to a crucial touchdown that gave Minnesota a big swing in momentum. The Vikings held off a late Eagles rally and got a much-needed win to stay just behind the Bears in the NFC North race.

Long live, big man touchdowns — especially the important ones. USA! USA! USA!