Isaiah Simmons: I’m normally not on field goal blocks

Isaiah Simmons has been a versatile player since entering the NFL and he’s seen time as a pass rusher, off-ball linebacker and defensive back, but the biggest play of his career came on special teams.

Simmons vaulted over the Seahawks line and blocked Jason Myers’s game-tying field goal attempt late in Sunday’s game in Seattle. Bryce Ford-Wheaton returned the ball for a touchdown and the Giants won 29-20 after it looked like they would have to go to overtime in order to secure a win.

After the game, Simmons said he practiced the play for the first time last Friday and had never tried it in a game until the big moment.

“That was the first time,” Simmons said, via a transcript from the team. “I’m normally not on field goal blocks. I said today I was going to block a punt or field goal, one of the two. I didn’t know which one, But it was going to be one of them.”

Simmons was college teammates with Seahawks safety K’Von Wallace and said that Wallace told him after the game that he knew Simmons would be trying to leap over the offensive line when he saw him lined up on the interior. It’s not clear if Wallace shared that information with his team, but it would have been useful to their bid to pull out a win on Sunday.