What in the world happened on the last play of the Bahamas Bowl
Little did we know that, with one second on the clock of the Bahamas Bowl on Wednesday, that we were about to witness one of the craziest – if not greatest and most memorable – plays in college football history. In light its similarity to the Music City Miracle, I’ve decided to dub this the Bahamas Bowl Blasphemy.
Okay, so maybe it needs a little bit of work, but the alliteration is totally there. And I love alliteration.
Ever since it happened, I’ve tried over and over again to go over what in the world happened on that play. Well, have no fear, because I’m here to break it down for you.
WKU 4th Down, :10 on the clock: Okay, before we talk about the play itself, let me say this – why in the world did the Tops punt? 10 seconds were left on the clock – why not take the snap from shot gun, have Brandon Doughty scramble for three or four seconds, than throw it through the back of the endzone? Time expires, Tops win, and no one remembers this Bahamas Bowl Blasphemy. (Like the name any better yet?) But alas, such a thing didn’t happen, and this ensued.
For the record, from here on out, times I put before the play is the time on the video. Alright, lets go!
0:00 – Obviously this is before the play. The Tops’ punted the ball, and nearly kept it out of the endzone, but it broke the plane in the air. The fourth down play started 10 seconds on the clock, and now we are at one second. The Tops have three down line men, three guys at the middle linebacker position and everyone else is in deep safety. CMU lines up from shotgun, trips receivers to the right of Cooper Rush and one down to the near side.
0:01-0:03 – Maybe a fourth man on the line would have worked wonders for the Tops. As Rush dances around the pocket, he finds an opening in which he steps up into. Woulda, coulda, shoulda I guess.
0:04-0:08 – Jesse Kroll goes up and brings the pass down between three jumping WKU defenders around the 29 yard line. Uh oh.
0:09-0:10 – Kroll gets sandwiched at the 25 and dishes it off to Deon Butler.
0:11-0:13 – Butler one-hands the catch (which, you have to admit was pretty cool), and outruns the Tops defense until about the 15 (thanks to some parallel movement), when he begins to be brought down.
0:14 – THE BALL HITS THE GROUND, BUT NO TOPPER IS NEAR READY TO POUNCE! One guy (it looks like maybe Nick Holt? But the video is too blurry to be sure) is about three yards away, but is running up the field and is being blocked out, and the nearest Hilltopper who could have dove on the ball is about five yards away. Ohhhh boy.
0:15-0:17 – Courtney Williams, the Chippewa who picked the ball up off the ground, doesn’t get far, but throws it backwards and finds Titus Davis. The killer here for WKU fans is there’s a Topper streaking across right there and is just out of the reach of knocking it away and ending this ruckus.
0:18-0:24 – Davis, using more parallel movement, finds the endzone, out running a trio of Hilltopper defenders.
Thank. God. The. Two. Point. Conversion. Was. No. Good.
What a gutwrentching play. As an Atlanta Braves fan, I get really mad and start to throw things anytime I watch, hear of, or even think of (and now I have to go get a new laptop) the infield fly play in the inaugural Wild Card game. This play, while maybe not on that level of anger, will always bring me back to the moment where I was watching it live.
But, luckily, the Tops had enough luck on their side to hold onto the victory. Now I need to go for a run to get rid off all this anxiety.