I was there. That was a stinger. Pedo State fans really think highly of themselves. James Jackson got the first down on the series before that, terrible spot.
Go Canes!
Happened right in front of me, my tickets have always been on the "away" side. I remember when I saw our defensive formation, I was screaming for the team to look out for Fields (during the pre-game warmups, Fields stood out to me for his height and he seemed to catch everything thrown to him). I know a lot of people like to blame Rumph and/or Reed, but think about all the factors.
1. This was one of the key games where people criticized (in this case rightly) Butch's game management. Butch bypassed a 39 yard FG attempt for Crosland in order to go for it on 4th down, which we didn't make. Had we made the FG, we'd have had a 7 point lead and enough time to talk about defensive strategy during the ensuing kickoff. Instead, we had to rush the defense out for a change-of-possession, and we didn't even call a TO. It was approximately 35 (real-life) seconds in between the time of the 4th down measurement and the Ped State snap of the ball.
2. Lots of people try to blame Ed for being too close to the line, but look at Schiano's play-call, he had two of the three players in the LB area (and to be honest, I think one was a DB and only 2 were LBs) standing up on either hip of our right-side defensive end and the third player in the LB area was just behind the DTs and blitzed. We sent five rushers when we had Ped State on their own 20 with 1:52 to go, and we gave a look like we were going to send even more. Not sure why. There was really no threat of Ped State running the ball and a QB is usually less worried about blitz pressure on 1st and 10 knowing he has a few extra downs to work with if he has to throw it away.
3. Ped State lined up with 2 WRs to the right and Chafie Fields to the left, one TE on the left and a RB in the backfield (and he went left to block). There was no motion. From the live play, it looked like Ed started out to the 2-WR side and maybe moved to the middle, but there was no safety wide in the area that Fields, the TE, or (possibly) the RB would be going. Rumph was on an island. We had 10 guys within 6 yards of the LOS at the snap, with 80 yards to go to win and 1:52 left on the clock.
4. I wouldn't say that Reed was loafing on the play, but the slo-mo replay DEFINITELY shows him speeding up once he sees Fields catch the ball and break Rumph's diving arm tackle. If Reed ran at full speed from the time the ball was thrown, I think Reed makes the tackle around our 35 yard line. Reed had the angle and he just looked faster than Fields after he started running full speed.
5. We dropped 6 into coverage for 5 eligible receivers. Not sure if I mentioned this, but Ped State had to go 80 yards in 1:52.
6. After Ped State went up 27-23, Kenny Kelly had TWO interceptions in the final 1:41 of the game (the second one with 35 seconds left).