Michigan State beats Wisconsin on Hail Mary
A. Isaac For the second straight year, Michigan State provided a last-second win for the ages. Last year, it was “Little Giants”, a fake field goal against Notre Dame in overtime.
Saturday night, it was this Hail Mary touchdown (nicknamed “Rocket”) with no time remaining to defeat #6 Wisconsin 37-31.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ending.
The video
The entire play, from start to finish, including the tense moments when it went to official review.
The evidence
A number of people out there are still unconvinced as to whether Keith Nichol crossed the goal line. The proverbial “Doubting Thomas” if you will. But as Adam Jacobi of CBS Sports points out, this is indisputable.
We often criticize officials for getting the call wrong, even with the luxury of instant replay, that’s probably been the case more times than not. But in this case, let’s applaud them for not using the “call on the field” as a crutch to get out of making the right call. For those who admonished them (Bomani Jones and SportsbyBrooks), shame on you.
The crowd reaction
Camera shaking, screaming, pretty girls, and extreme jubilation? Sure, why not.
How the cheerleaders took the play in
This Wisconsin cheerleader celebrated a bit prematurely
While this MSU cheerleader was just in shock
Brent Musburger loves to call Hail Mary’s
As one astute observer points out, ABC play-by-play man Brent Musburger also called Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary for Boston College 27 years ago.
Bret Bielema talks out of both sides of his mouth
After the game, Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema told reporters that if the game went to overtime, he had the utmost confidence the team would “roll.” Understandable, given the amount of momentum the Badgers had going at that point in time.
But if Bielema was so confident in an extra frame, why then did he call two timeouts when MSU was content letting the clock run out. Hmmm? He’ll undoubtedly get that question next week during his press conference.
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