On a pivotal third-and-long in the third quarter of Monday’s National Championship, Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm and receiver Mecole Hardman connected on a bomb of an 80-yard touchdown pass. The play withstood a review and a flag:
Why Georgia’s razor-thin 80-yard TD wasn’t wiped out on a sideline interference call
The Dawgs were fortunate in more ways than one.
Georgia earned a penalty for bench interference on the play, committed by a non-player. The NCAA’s football rulebook deems sideline interference a 15-yard penalty from the succeeding spot, administered as a dead-ball foul. That’s why Georgia’s touchdown stood up, and why the Dawgs kicked from their own 20 on the ensuing kickoff.
That wasn’t all that was going on here, though. The play also went through a video review to see if Hardman stepped out of bounds around the Alabama 20-yard line. It was ruled that he didn’t, or at least that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call on the field that Hardman was in bounds for a touchdown.
Looks out of bounds to me, but I’m not a scientist.
This play was busy, but it worked well for the Dawgs. They took a 20-7 lead, answering Alabama’s first points of the game a drive before that.
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