FOXBORO, Mass. — Patrick Chung scrambled to find fellow New England Patriots safety Duron Harmon after he intercepted Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck on Thursday night.
Chung and Harmon had planned something special an hour before the game, and the rest of the Patriots probably thought the two safeties were crazy as they were setting it up.
“They didn’t even tell nobody about it,” cornerback Jason McCourty said after the Patriots’ 38-24 win over the Colts. “It was just them two.”
That something special? A “Karate Kid” inspired celebration, where Chung crane kicked a wobbly Harmon.
A Pat Pick & a Crane Kick.@PatrickChung23 | #INDvsNE | #GoPats pic.twitter.com/UUHyDvAvaE
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 5, 2018
“We just thought about it in the locker room, so it was pretty good,” Chung said. “Gladly it worked out for us to be able to do it.”
And that’s the thing. One of the two players had to make a play worthy of celebration. Chung picked off Luck with 38 seconds left in the first half, while the Patriots already were up 21-3.
PICKED!@PatrickChung23 jumps in front and intercepts the Luck pass. #INDvsNE
📺: @nflnetwork + @NFLonFOX
📱+💻: https://t.co/DJUityQHC9 https://t.co/bSnpr1HKkQ— NFL (@NFL) October 5, 2018
The Patriots got an extra three points out of the pick, kicking a field goal before halftime.
“I was super hyped,” Harmon said. “If you look at the replay, you’ll see like, Chung is looking up, running trying to find me, and I’m coming from the back trying to find him. Like, ‘this is our shot, man. This is what we talked about.’ It was all great.”
Harmon actually came up with the idea.
“The funniest thing is I told Chung about,” Harmon said. “It was whoever had the pick was going to get to be Mr. Miyagi, the Karate Kid, and the other guy got to be (Johnny Lawrence). So, nah, it just something we thought of right before going out there. Good thing we thought about it, because it came to reality.”
And Harmon and Chung aren’t constantly cooking these things up. This is the first choreographed celebration we’ve ever seen from the two safeties.
“It really is a spur of the moment,” Chung said. “Sometimes you think about it. But if you don’t play good, then you’re not going to have any celebrations to begin with. But that was just a spur of the moment, and it worked out, so we got it.”
