Okay, so I was watching that Alabama game, the Rose Bowl against Michigan, right? Nail-biter all the way, especially heading into overtime. My heart was pounding during that final sequence.
Alabama gets the ball second in OT after Michigan scores. They drive it down close. Then it comes down to that one final play, 4th and goal. They need a touchdown to stay alive. Quarterback Jalen Milroe takes the snap, tries to run it straight up the middle himself.
Watching it live, on my TV screen, it looked incredibly close! For a split second, I thought, “He’s in! Touchdown Alabama! We’re going to a second OT!” The pile forms, players everywhere. But then the refs come out, wave it off pretty quickly. No touchdown signal.
Figuring it out
So, confusion sets in immediately. What happened? Did he fumble? Was there a penalty I missed? Why didn’t that count? My first instinct was to grab my phone. Started scrolling through sports sites, checking the live game threads on some forums I read.
Saw tons of chatter online, everyone debating it. Lots of caps lock, as you’d expect. People were posting grainy phone videos of their TVs. I needed a clearer look.
Finally, the official replays started circulating. Watched those angles a few times over. And yeah, you could see it much better. Michigan’s defensive line got a huge push. They hit Milroe right at the line of scrimmage, maybe even a hair behind it. He tried to surge forward, but there was just a wall of defenders there.
He got stopped. Plain and simple. The ball never looked like it crossed the goal line. It was an incredible defensive stand by Michigan.
So, the answer to “why didn’t the touchdown count?” is actually pretty straightforward, even though it was confusing in the moment.
- It wasn’t a touchdown that got called back due to a penalty.
- It wasn’t a situation where he scored, but something nullified it after the fact.
- It simply wasn’t a touchdown because the runner was stopped short of the goal line.
Took a bit of digging through the immediate reactions and finding good replays to be sure, but that was it. Michigan’s defense won the game right there on that goal-line stand. Tough way for Alabama to lose, ending the game right there, but that’s football. Sometimes it really does come down to inches.
