Last night, I settled in for an evening of football, eager to watch two exciting matchups: Jets-Patriots on Thursday Night Football and South Alabama-Appalachian State. However, things didn’t quite go as planned. The Patriots proved to be who we thought they were, and South Alabama dominated Appalachian State, making the game a blowout by the second quarter.
But the real surprise came later, when ESPN2 aired a Division II football game between the 1-2 Edward Waters Tigers and the 0-2 Benedict College Tigers. I tuned in during the fourth quarter, with Edward Waters leading 28-25. I expected a thrilling finish, but what I got was chaos.
Benedict College missed a 40-yard field goal that would have tied the game, and Edward Waters got the ball back with a chance to run out the clock. However, the play clock at Charlie W. Johnson Stadium was broken, adding to the confusion. The refs were counting on their fingers, yelling out 10-second and 5-second warnings, but nobody seemed to know how much time was left on the play clock.
Edward Waters managed to get to midfield, but then things got really weird. With 1 minute left and no timeouts remaining for Benedict, Edward Waters snapped the ball with just over 50 seconds left. But instead of running out the clock, the game turned into a mess.
The announcers failed to explain what was happening, and the mic cut out when the ref tried to give an explanation over the loudspeaker. It wasn’t until later that I learned about a obscure NCAA rule: when a player’s helmet comes off in the last minute of the game, the opposing team has the option to subtract 10 seconds from the clock or start the clock on the snap.
In this case, Benedict opted for the 10-second subtraction, which led to Edward Waters punting the ball away. Benedict got the ball back with 35 seconds left and no timeouts, and it was clear they would march down the field and at least get a shot at tying the game.
But the cherry on top of this disastrous broadcast was the final play of the game. The camera man somehow managed to miss the entire play, despite there being no fake handoff, pump fake, or misdirection. It was as if he lost control of the camera, leaving viewers stunned and confused.
In the end, it was a fitting conclusion to what was arguably the worst-produced football broadcast featuring two of the weakest college football teams I’ve ever seen.
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