After forcing Arizona State to punt the ball with 1:44 left, Wisconsin took the ball from their own 17-yard line with 1:36 left in the game and no timeouts. Quarterback Joe Stave led the Badgers down to the Arizona State 13-yard line and had 18 seconds left before the most bizarre play of the year happened.
I can’t even explain really explain what happened next. Wisconsin quarterback Joe Stave ran to the middle of the field to give his kicker a better angle at a game winning field goal and he gave himself up and placed the ball down on the ground. Arizona State treated it as a live ball and laid on it while the clock continued to roll. The referee never spotted the ball and Wisconsin never got another snap off. How this wasn’t delay of game on Arizona State is absolutely beyond me. The referees will have to answer to this because they clearly took the game away from Wisconsin and handed it to Arizona State. This was utterly brutal.
This screencap from @cjzero shows Stave did put his knee down before putting down the ball:
Some analysts/writers weighed in on what happened:
Did that really just happen??
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 15, 2013
Everyone watching the last five minutes of this game is thinking the same thing. RT @GottliebShow Wtf just happened in Tempe
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 15, 2013
What a bizarre ending to a GREAT game between Wisconsin and Arizona State. Refs blew it but will they be held accountable?
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) September 15, 2013
Are you kidding me?! What was that at Sun Devil Stadium?!?! What just happened?!?
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 15, 2013
[@cjzero]
