04/18/24
October 28, 2007
Trinity University Beats Millsaps College with Final 14-Lateral Pass: The lateral-tastic maneuver was straight out of the Cal playbook. However, Trinity missed the part where you clobber a trombone player.
What a play. That was very fun to watch. I'm with rcade in that the announcing was very well done.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 12:08 PM on October 28, 2007
Just really an amazing play. It looked like after the last lateral, the Millsaps guys just quit pursuing, as if they thought the play was dead. Not sure what that was all about. (P.S. -- Super long edit window -- feature or bug?)
posted by holden at 02:17 PM on October 28, 2007
Crazy! Great link.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 04:12 PM on October 28, 2007
Rugby!
posted by owlhouse at 04:57 PM on October 28, 2007
What a ridiculous play (in a great way). I always thought laterals had to be underhand. Guess not.
posted by kokaku at 05:48 PM on October 28, 2007
Nope. They just can't go forward or else it is an illegal forward pass.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:23 PM on October 28, 2007
Not being flippant about the comparison, but I'm surprised this sort of play isn't planned for and used a bit more in American football. I guess in rugby, the defenders are right in front of you and you're not allowed to block, but there are some similarities.
posted by owlhouse at 11:57 PM on October 28, 2007
Great job by Trinity to finally gain some recognition. Anyone who has read comments from me before, knows I'm in San Antonio, which happens to be where Trinity is... This is all over the local news, and front page on all the papers... Most of the people in this city (population: 2 million) didn't even know Trinity HAD a team.
posted by freeze_over98 at 04:10 AM on October 29, 2007
I think the reason it isn't used over here is because losing the ball is a much bigger deal in American football. It's turned over several times every few minutes in rugby typically. A rugby team doesn't mind giving up the ball if it pins the other team close to their try line. A football team never wants to lose the ball. All of those laterals are highly susceptible to fumbles.
posted by Ricardo at 01:52 PM on October 29, 2007
All of those laterals are highly susceptible to fumbles. Well, yeah, but when you're down two points with two seconds to go, and you've got the ball on your own 39-yard line, anything other than a touchdown is a loss, so who worries about fumbles?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 03:46 PM on October 29, 2007
Hey, did I see that right? Did that last lateral actually bounce before it was caught by the scoring player? I guess bouncing is still considered "in play" (I'm not an American Football fan, so don't know all technicalities of incomplete passes), and that just adds to the drama of them actually making this happen, because that last bounce could've easily caused the last player to miss the catch or move away from the final opening through which he made that touchdown run. Awesome. And that announcer's going berserk just adds to the magic of the moment. Tigers FTW!
posted by worldcup2002 at 05:06 PM on October 29, 2007
I've seen Three Stooges skits that were more plausible.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:43 PM on October 29, 2007
I have read that an NFL game averages 14 minutes of play and the clock runs down in between plays for the rest. That one play took sixty-two seconds (two seconds of playing time.) Awesome!
posted by Newbie Walker at 12:30 AM on October 30, 2007
Did that last lateral actually bounce before it was caught by the scoring player? I guess bouncing is still considered "in play" (I'm not an American Football fan, so don't know all technicalities of incomplete passes), Yeah, it can bounce, and it's basically treated as a fumble: i.e. the other team can pick it up and run with it, as opposed to a forward pass. There was a nice little play in one of the college games that looked straight off the rugby pitch, and you have to assume that some college squads have at least one or two practices a season with the varsity rugby team, just to get some basic drills on how to make that kind of pass should you need a final-seconds miracle. The college game is also the sweet spot for planned weirdness when it comes to the playbook. And I love these things, even if I hate the word 'lateral' used to describe them.
posted by etagloh at 01:17 AM on October 30, 2007
Well, yeah, but when you're down two points with two seconds to go, and you've got the ball on your own 39-yard line, anything other than a touchdown is a loss, so who worries about fumbles? I agree. What I meant was these are the reasons it isn't used as standard play.
posted by Ricardo at 09:24 AM on October 30, 2007
Great play, and great announcing job by the Trinity broadcaster. I think he got the name of all 14 players who caught a lateral. At the end, one of the Millsap players gets clobbered. His helmet flew off and I was afraid his head was still in it.