Western Michigan pulls a Sparty - 12 men on the field during a final play Hail Mary attempt results in penalty and game-winning 52 yard field goal as time expires
Western Michigan took a page out of Coach D’s playbook to gift Western Kentucky with the opportunity to kick a last-second field goal. Western Kentucky considered a 57 yard field goal too long to even attempt in regulation. But when Western Michigan thought emulating Sparty would be the right play, WKU took advantage of the makable distance (The true freshman kicker Cory Munson’s previous long was 48 yards.)
College football rarely ceases to fascinate. Enjoy the games and go blue!
December 30th, 2019 at 4:21 PM ^
Hilarious
December 30th, 2019 at 4:23 PM ^
Also, the WMU QB had a wide-open field on 3rd-and-1 to set up a game-winning field goal, but he slipped and fell down, untouched, for a loss.
December 30th, 2019 at 4:30 PM ^
was sinking feeling
December 30th, 2019 at 4:30 PM ^
And still had a shot at the field goal, which I believe the announcer said was within the kicker's distance. But instead they chose to go for it on 4th down, failed, and turned the ball over on downs.
Dumb.
December 30th, 2019 at 4:59 PM ^
It’s a fricking bowl game. Why the hell didn’t WMU try a FG?
December 30th, 2019 at 7:57 PM ^
Very windy day .Western into a strong wind.
They shouldve at least tried it.Killer was calling a TO with like 40 secs left just before 4th down.They needed to let clock burn to 3 call TO and try the long FG,much better chance to win
December 30th, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^
He honestly may have had a TD with how that play was developing.
December 30th, 2019 at 4:26 PM ^
Love bowl season
December 30th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
Praise for this post title. Making a play for the belt, I see.
December 30th, 2019 at 4:44 PM ^
I like these long titles
December 30th, 2019 at 6:54 PM ^
That's what she said.
December 30th, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
I read it as long titties. Is that wrong?
December 30th, 2019 at 4:53 PM ^
I guess the boat ?♀️ took on some water
December 30th, 2019 at 4:59 PM ^
Is this our open thread? b/c SEC officials just overturned a non-catch in the Illinois game to a catch. While it was likely a catch, he did slightly bobble it and only got one foot down before going out.
I'm sure an ohio state university people are going bucknuts right now because that was much less a catch than the overturned catch/fumble TD vs clemson the SEC crew did a few days ago.
December 30th, 2019 at 5:51 PM ^
How many feet do you need to get down in college?
December 30th, 2019 at 5:03 PM ^
The officials let Western Kentucky run their offense out, then fg unit, then back to offense without starting the play clock. The whole thing was bizarre.
December 30th, 2019 at 5:33 PM ^
In that situation you leave your defense in, just in case they throw the Hail Mary not the block FG unit, Western Michigan’s coaches flat out got caught and got out coached on the play.
December 30th, 2019 at 5:40 PM ^
Bronco noooo...!
December 30th, 2019 at 5:47 PM ^
you buried several ledes here.
1. WMU's QB had a huge gain and possible TD until he tripped over his own feet. They could have just run the clock down and kicked a short FG, but nope, turned it over on downs.
2. WMU got called for TWO consecutive 'too many men on the field' penalties back to back. I've never seen anything like it. Maybe you only saw the last one?
December 30th, 2019 at 6:10 PM ^
Imagine this site had this staff got caught with 12 men on the field in that situation?
December 30th, 2019 at 6:12 PM ^
I think the lede is pretty well encapsulated in the title. But yes, there were numerous embarrassing events at the end of that game - and I saw them all. WMU went full Sparty to end this one...
December 30th, 2019 at 6:30 PM ^
no, it is not. They had two consecutive illegal participation penalties. THAT is the most absurd part about it. One is one thing, having two in a row is absolutely unique and should have been mentioned in the original post. When was the last time you saw a team do that twice in a row. So that is the lede here in my opinion.
December 30th, 2019 at 6:57 PM ^
No they didn't. One was picked up because the ball wasn't signaled ready for play by the ref. Only one penalty.
December 30th, 2019 at 6:44 PM ^
The first one didn’t get called because the ref had not placed the ball yet.
December 30th, 2019 at 10:17 PM ^
No. That near-too-many-men play was not a legal play. The ref said something about not having marked the ball for play. Ergo there was no play to have too many men on for.
But yeah, before the ref explained that plenty of WKU people - players & coaches - were pointing at the Broncos for having too many men on the field.
The fact that WMU *still* couldn't get the right number of players on the field is amazing. A complete shitshow from both WMU and the refs the last 2 minutes.
Next to all of the other shit flying its a minor thing, but the WMU defenders who got sucked up when Storey scrambled out of the pocket to his left on the 2nd & 10 play (from the WKU 41) were nuts. Let Storey run! You can keep him from the sideline easily and the clock may have well run out. No way is Storey getting anywhere near 20 yards with his legs.
December 30th, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
And I failed to mention the hilarity in the booth where the announcers, working with still photos with a quality Zapruder would have been embarrassed by, tried to verify for themselves how many Broncos were on the field. Neither photo showed enough range, clarity and detail to say for sure how many Broncos were out there.
This bowl was so fleabag there wasn't enough cash to repaint the end zones in the two teams' colors.
December 30th, 2019 at 9:00 PM ^
You never go full sparty
December 30th, 2019 at 9:11 PM ^
To be fair, MACtion in a bowl game is typically otherworldly and in a most entertaining way sometimes....
December 31st, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
Ha ha, I feel so superior making fun of sparty for screwing up at the end of the game.
December 31st, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
When MSU does it, it's entertaining. When WMU does it, I am sad and disappointed.