THAT CATCH wasn’t the only wild thing in the last 6 seconds of Youngstown State-EWU

The FCS playoffs are good. This is true every year. But it has rarely been truer than it was on Saturday, when Youngstown State won at Eastern Washington to claim a spot in the national championship game. The game produced one of those moments that’ll live for pretty much ever.

As the clock appeared to expire with YSU trailing, 38-34, YSU tight end Kevin Rader made the play of his life. He ran a post pattern in the EWU end zone, and Eagles linebacker Ketner Kupp draped himself all over him.

Rader didn’t get a pass interference call, but he found something better: the football. With a combination of his right hand and forearm, Rader pinned the ball to Kupp’s left shoulder pad, securing it as a throng of Kupp’s teammates sent both of them to the ground. A two-minute review confirmed the catch. The score had gone from 38-34, EWU, to 40-38, YSU.

The play started with six seconds left. Had the ball been broken up, the time it took for it to fall to the ground could have ended the game. But the review confirmed the catch came with a second left on the clock, so they weren’t done yet.

1. YSU coach Bo Pelini did something unusual but clever after the touchdown. He didn’t have his kicker boot an extra point, and he didn’t have his offense try to go for two. He just had his quarterback kneel down with a two-point lead.

On the surface, it’s a weird call. The difference between leads of two and three points, most of the time, is significant. It means giving up a field goal only lets the opponent tie the game versus win the game if it marches into range for one. But that’s why Pelini was so smart to just quit the play.

With one second on the clock, it was functionally not possible for Eastern Washington to get into field goal range. As long as Pelini’s kickoff unit could successfully boot a kick past 10 yards, the last play of the game was guaranteed to either be a kickoff or a fair catch/Hail Mary combo. (The Penguins ruled the latter out by squibbing the kick into the ground.) It would be too far for a realistic field goal try.

But what wasn’t moot was the possibility of something like this:

Blocked PATs count for two points if they are run back all the way. This can of worms was best left unopened with so little time on the clock.

Recently fired Oregon coach Mark Helfrich made an identical decision in a game at Utah in November. The Ducks took a two-point lead on a touchdown with two seconds left, then kneeled on the two-point opportunity.

2. Oh, and Youngstown State’s safety player on the PAT kneel-down, WR Damoun Patterson, did a backflip.

The game wasn’t even over. He just couldn’t contain the backflip. Classic.

3. The last kickoff play lasted approximately forever.

Let’s analyze this.

The first decision EWU makes here is to let the squib kick roll past its up-men in the middle of the field. Probably a good move by Nos. 41 and 14, Trevor Davis Jr. and Jayson Williams, to let the pigskin hop all the way to a designated return man, No. 10 Cooper Kupp. (He is Ketner Kupp’s brother and one of the best FCS receivers ever.)

The first lateral goes from Kupp to fellow designated return man Nsimba Webster (No. 22). This will be the first of a great many laterals.

Webster is a go-getter at first, but he sees an oncoming hoard of tacklers and decides after a few steps that he wants no part of this mess. He throws across the field to Kupp. That’s the second lateral.

Kupp cuts across the field but runs into more trouble. He sacrifices his body to lob another lateral to teammate Shaq Hill, lounging by himself near the right sideline. It’s a good toss. That’s Lateral No. 3.

Life comes at Hill extraordinarily fast. The two YSU defenders charging at him in that screen cap are going to get there quickly. Lateral No. 4 finds its way to No. 28, running back Antoine Custer Jr. He’s going to get clocked.

Custer catches the ball right between two more YSU defenders. By this point, the ball is a hot potato, so it’s time to get rid of it. Lateral No. 5 goes to Webster, whom you will remember as the recipient of Lateral No. 1.

Webster has a passion for this, though. He scoops up the ball and winds his way back toward the middle of the field. A teammate throws a nice block in the back to help him, which referees opt not to call.

Webster decides to uncork Lateral No. 6 to the aforementioned Custer Jr.

Custer Jr. is about to join the Life Comes at You Fast Club, however. He’s hit quickly, and he barely gets off a wobbly toss back to Kupp. It’s Lateral No. 7.

Our story is about to end where it began. Kupp picks up the ball, runs for a few seconds, tries to split some defenders, and is suplexed.

There will be no Lateral No. 8 in this tale. Kupp is marked down at the EWU 23, 12 yards behind the initial point where he fielded the kickoff. This shindig is finally over, and Youngstown State is off to Frisco, Texas to play James Madison for the FCS title.