I saw it. A white jersey WV defender tried to catch it with two hands. He could have just batted the ball down/away. Instead he’s act like it’s a pass coming to him as a receiver. Just dumb
Great play design by Dana. This is why we watch! Woo hoo!! That makes the season worth it right there.
You can't bat the ball down when someone pushes your ass out of the way and jumps higher than you. I'll say it again, Manjack is the MVP of this team. Anyway.
He wasn’t pushed though. #13 had both hands up and makes contact as the ball comes to him. He should be looking to hit the ball away or down. Not trying to pad an int. End of game. Him and UH #0 were both the first next to each other to go up to make the catch. It goes off them into another UH player hands. #12 who ends up with the ball had his back turned the whole time and it drops in his hands lol
The DB on the left was the guy who should have 1) had position and 2) knocked it down. You're right, he did try to catch it like a dummy. However, Manjack got higher than him and literally forced him out of the way in midair ('push' was a misnomer, more like 'knock/bump'). Red arrow is the ball. Green arrow is the trailing DB's hand who had pretty bad positioning but did the right thing in trying to knock the ball out of Manjack's hands. Had he not done that, Manjack catches it outright. Our man simply beat their man on the jump. People act like "just knock it down" is a given/easy thing to do. To do that you have to think of it like an NBA rebound. You have to jump higher than everyone else, but you also have to box out. The bigger question I have is WTF were these other 4 goobers doing?
Manjack wasn't the only only who touched it. if your hands are on it, you should be knocking it away not trying to catch it with 2 hands. Manjack wasn’t even the first person to touch the fb. It was the two hands of the WV player #13. Again you go up with 2 hands to hit the ball in that situation, not act like a receiver. you're a DB for a reason There's no situation where anyone is getting moss'd or megatron'd here
John O' Korn had one at halftime too, but this is a once in a lifetime event to win the game. A miracle. Proof that the higher power is with us this weekend.
You are correct that the primary DB messed up by going for the catch (in traffic at least). The 2nd DB just tried to punch the ball away, which was his best play given his poor position. I don't know how some folks think physics works, but you're not going to be "batting/knocking the ball down" if you are not the sole person touching the ball in that scenario. If those two DBs tried to bat the ball down, they'd whiff or at best knock it into the air all the same, because someone reaching upwards is going to make first contact with the ball over someone pushing laterally/downwards. Someone trying to high point the ball, unless their vertical absolutely sucks, is going to win that scenario (i.e. make the most meaningful contact with the ball) every single time. Granted you can get away with bloody murder as a DB in that scenario and not draw a flag, so hacking at the arms/hands of the receiver is a legit play, but the trick is not to try to "bat it down", but to try to force all the receivers out of position so 1) they don't have a man playing the ball thereby no chance the ball is tipped upwards and 2) if they do manage #1 that there won't be anyone in the immediate area to catch the rebound. Anyway, this is a dumb sidequest of a topic, want to see this mantra gone hilariously wrong?
