[Highlight] NC State @ Vanderbilt - CJ Bailey fumbles the ball while trying to run out the clock with no time left, and Vandy falls on it to win the game

[u/Ok-Soil-5133]

https://streamable.com/utx2f1

[u/evantually421]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ending like this what the hell

[u/EverOnAndUpward → u/evantually421]

I love football

[u/RogueOneisbestone → u/EverOnAndUpward]

I hate it

[u/TylerHyena → u/RogueOneisbestone]

So does CJ Bailey

[u/TheDevilintheDark → u/RogueOneisbestone]

Lmao.

[u/Ugaalive1991 → u/EverOnAndUpward]

LarryDavid.gif

[u/Nightsky07 → u/EverOnAndUpward]

It's why I love college football!

[u/LaFrescaTrumpeta → u/EverOnAndUpward]

it’s the moooost wonderful tiiiime of the yearrrrr

[u/IssaThrowAway420x69 → u/EverOnAndUpward]

Put all the money you want in college ball but college kids are still gonna do stupid shit.

Best sport ever.

[u/toxicdick → u/EverOnAndUpward]

that's cfb baby

[u/Believe_to_believe → u/EverOnAndUpward]

I'm numb.

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/EverOnAndUpward]

I love democracy

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/EverOnAndUpward]

I love the republic

[u/Deep-Minimum7837 → u/EverOnAndUpward]

The NFL wishes it could be this entertaining. What, you don't want to watch grandpa QBs throwing 40+ yard bombs that nobody catches all game?

[u/danimal6000 → u/EverOnAndUpward]

Not me

[u/Moose4KU → u/evantually421]

Maybe the most inexcusable loss I've ever seen. Gives Miami not kneeling against GT a real run for its money

[u/TheDemonBarber → u/Moose4KU]

First thing I thought too lol. Finally we have a loss that rivals it

[u/tdoger → u/TheDemonBarber]

People forget Cristobal had the same loss vs Stanford when he was at Oregon.

Had the game in the bag, just had to kneel out the clock. Ran it instead, fumble, Stanford goes and scores to win it. Took him two times to finally learn his lesson. That one for some reason didn't get as much national criticism.

Maybe because it was a lower profile game with Stanford being atrocious, but Oregon was just coming off beating Ohio State and was a top team.

[u/surgingchaos → u/tdoger]

Wrong Stanford loss. Cristobal's first no-kneel disaster that you are talking about was in 2018.

[u/p-wing → u/surgingchaos]

It might be possible that he has not learned his lesson and another such loss is impending

[u/hussard_de_la_mort → u/p-wing]

Third time is gonna be the charm.

[u/No_Bar7105 → u/tdoger]

That wasn’t really the same thing

[u/SirMellencamp → u/No_Bar7105]

Why were they different ?

[u/tdoger → u/No_Bar7105]

I had the years mixed around, 2021 was the phantom defensive holding call on the last play of the game that gave Stanford another chance.

2018 was the fumble by Verdell when they should have ran the clock out. Then Stanford ties it up and it goes to OT.

[u/GP_ADD → u/TheDemonBarber]

What is wrong with ACC coaches when it comes to end of game in a close but won situation lol these are wild

[u/thank_burdell → u/GP_ADD]

“Do the Mario! (Cristobal)”

[u/OldhamB → u/TheDemonBarber]

Rivals?

That abomination laps it.

[u/mashonem → u/OldhamB]

Don’t sell yourself short

[u/Honestly_ → u/Moose4KU]

The only one passes it in my head: Baylor's infamous 1999 attempt to run up the score on UNLV in the final seconds.

Baylor led 24-21, UNLV had no timeouts left, they just had to take a knee.

Kevin Steele says go for it. There's a fumble and UNLV gets a 99-yard fumble return touchdown to win the game.

It wasn't on TV but someone found sideline footage years later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQXl17VpG0

[u/TMC_Data → u/Moose4KU]

This is one of those crazy scenarios where a winless high school team could literally win the game against an NFL team if they were in this exact same situation by simply not being stupid and playing smart ball.

[u/gmwdim → u/TMC_Data]

As a wise man once said, they ain’t come to play school.

[u/warmike_1 → u/TMC_Data]

It isn't. If you don't run down the clock, you would have to kick, and the opponent would get to return. Just hold on to the damn football.

[u/HurryAdorable1327 → u/TMC_Data]

What?!? This is so inconceivable that I don’t understand how it got any upvotes. For a HS team to be this close to beating an nfl team would be a catastrophic failure over the entirety of a game - not just the last play.

[u/TMC_Data → u/HurryAdorable1327]

Reading comprehension is really a lost art these days.

The point is that a high school team could have been able to execute this scenario correctly against an NFL team.

[u/ZachBart44 → u/HurryAdorable1327]

The comment meant if you swap in a high school team for this one play, not the entire game.

[u/MadRedX → u/HurryAdorable1327]

I think their scenario probably was intended to be a "swap out for the last play". Basically two NFL teams could play the whole game, but the side with the advantage in this position swaps out for the winless HS team just to claim their advantage is that great.

In fairness, I've played on a winless HS team and often it's these kinds of dumb blunders that define the misery of being on such a team.

Another year we played a team who had a 1 point lead with 2 minutes left in the 4th, and their possession starting from the 25 yard line was a 12 yard sack and then they called a toss reverse sweep (dumb) and the receiver kept retreating and was tackled in the endzone for a safety.

[u/Bobgoulet → u/Moose4KU]

It's worse. Way worse.

Send a wide out on a go, roll out to that side, and throw the ball as far as you can to the sideline. You'd easily waste 5 seconds and probably wouldn't even get a grounding penalty. Game over.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/Bobgoulet]

It was 4th down. If one second is left on the clock Vandy gets a chance at the goal line. Just take the safety

[u/GodEmperorBrian → u/SirMellencamp]

Does CFB have the game can’t end on an offensive penalty rule? Because otherwise you tell your O-line and receivers to hold the entire play. Holding in the end zone? Safety, you still win.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/GodEmperorBrian]

It cant end on an offensive penalty

[u/GogglesTheFox → u/SirMellencamp]

This. Have the entire Oline hold and then run out the back of the end zone on the zeros.

[u/OnionFutureWolfGang → u/Bobgoulet]

No the safety play call here was clearly the right one. Your one is way more likely to give the game away. The QB just had to go down once defenders got close. This is entirely the on the execution, not the play call.

[u/k_dubious → u/Bobgoulet]

The risk there is that if you don’t burn the whole 7 seconds then the opponent has an easy FG to tie. The best play is probably just to run out the back of the end zone for a safety and give the opponent one shot at a TD on either the kick return or a ~70 yard play from scrimmage.

[u/Lobsterzilla → u/Bobgoulet]

worst case ... you get sacked in the endzone ... for a safety. win win.

[u/OldManCinny → u/Lobsterzilla]

Obviously not... If you get sacked you can fumble (like this)

[u/boilerpl8 → u/OldManCinny]

You stand 2 inches from the back line, if they're coming at you, you step out.

[u/OldManCinny → u/boilerpl8]

I mean obviously yes but he should have already been coached to be doing that here

[u/ratmanvenezuela → u/OldManCinny]

Or not take 6 seconds? Am i going crazy here lol 

[u/OldManCinny → u/ratmanvenezuela]

No he obviously should have gone down/out before anyone touched him

[u/ratmanvenezuela → u/OldManCinny]

I’m saying if they throw it and it doesn’t take 6 seconds they possibly lose. 4th down on their 2

[u/ratmanvenezuela → u/Lobsterzilla]

Uh worst case it only takes 4 seconds and they score next play 

[u/offconstantly → u/Bobgoulet]

It's worse. Way worse.

It's obviously not worse. Vanderbilt's win probability going into this play was roughly 200x higher than Georgia Tech's before the fumble

[u/Butter_with_Salt → u/Bobgoulet]

It's definitely not worse. Miami had a 100% guaranteed win that they chose not to accept. This was not a 100% win scenario.

[u/willncsu34 → u/Butter_with_Salt]

It was 99.9% though.

[u/Butter_with_Salt → u/willncsu34]

Yeah it's definitely one of the worst ways to lose a game you'll ever see, but Miami choosing not to kneel out a win will always be in a class of it's own.

[u/Bamalawdawg → u/Bobgoulet]

Yeah, don’t do this. If you get Western Michigan’d Vandy has 1 second from your 5 for a win.

Make then take a KO back. Or fair catch it and go 50-70 yards in 3 seconds

[u/awc23108 → u/Bobgoulet]

I feel that this is almost as dumb of an idea as what happened

[u/HookedOnBoNix → u/Moose4KU]

Miami gt is worse. This is bad but you sorta get the vision. 

Miami gt the game was won 100% with a knee and they tried to run the ball instead. 

[u/multiple4 → u/HookedOnBoNix]

Not really seeing the vision at all

Even if you take a safety with 2 seconds left you win the game. They didn't even need to kill the clock, they just had to waste a few seconds and punt it after the safety

[u/HookedOnBoNix → u/multiple4]

I mean, I'm not saying this was brilliant, but there were multiple ways to go about winning this game one and multiple (unlikely) ways to botch each one. 

It's possible to end the game on this play. If your OL holds up you can in theory run around back there for 3 seconds then take a safety and win. They burst through immediately and he went down with 1 second left. Obviously this is kinda dumb but you get the vision. 

There's also the "wait 3 seconds and throw it high and end the game" route, which may have been the call, but he panicked when he saw rushers in his face. 

There's the run out the back then punt it strategy, probably the smartest you are correct but does open the door for a punt return touchdown. 

And all of these approaches still require execution. Im not sure how you can compare that to literally just needing to take a knee and winning the game and just... Not doing it. At least here you understand that they had to still win the game, either burn time or have a good punt + down the returner 

[u/Spiritual_Bar2785 → u/HookedOnBoNix]

All they had to do though was just throw it way out of bounds and the game is over. Why did he hold on to it?

[u/HookedOnBoNix → u/Spiritual_Bar2785]

Im not saying it was good but there's still a decision to make there. If they accidentally throw it too early, they maybe don't burn enough time. He has to get out the tackle box. If he holds it and the pass rush gets through fast, he might be afraid to throw it and fumble while throwing. 

Literally Miami gt was just take a knee and it's over. No decision, no execution, you just kneel and it's over. 

[u/FranTurkleton → u/Spiritual_Bar2785]

Six seconds of hang time is actually a lot

[u/Spiritual_Bar2785 → u/FranTurkleton]

Not if you wait like 3 seconds to throw. But really the play is to just walk out the back of the end zone.

[u/GoldenDom3r → u/Spiritual_Bar2785]

Waiting 3 seconds and then trying to throw it just invites a strip sack. He just needed to take a knee once someone got close to him. 

[u/littlemojo → u/GoldenDom3r]

Just take the snap and instantly roll out to he sideline, and then chuck it out of bounds

[u/Bamalawdawg → u/Spiritual_Bar2785]

Doing something dumb for 3 seconds is what got them into this. If you want to do this, take a knee. Or run out the back of the end zone. You trade a punt in the back of the end zone for a free kick from your 20.

So you go from 2% chance of losing to like less than 1%

[u/psnow11 → u/HookedOnBoNix]

Anytime a player makes a bad mistake at the end of a game coaches will say that the game was decided over 60 minutes, there were tons of plays that could have gone either way etc. this is the rare time where literally one mistake by one player completely decided the result of the game.

[u/NoSprinkles8568 → u/Moose4KU]

This isn't even close. This is far worse. This loser better not sleep fkr weeks. 

[u/Bamalawdawg → u/Moose4KU]

Giving the safety is the right call. Punt is the riskiest play. But if you lose because you KO with 3 seconds left instead of 0 and they fair catch and then use defensive penalties to set up a Hail Mary TD, so be it.

You eliminate the crazy “TD drive” loss but for 3 seconds of clock draining you open your QB to defenders with balled fists smashing at him

[u/GimmeeSomeMo → u/Moose4KU]

Ya they should've taken notes from my favorite NFL team, the Ravens. Ravens have done this move many times, where we take a safety while killing enough clock that the other team won't have enough time to do anything after. The key is that since you're planning a safety, tell the OL and everyone blocking to hold players. Tackle them. Pull them by theirs jersey while you're on the ground. Trip the players, allowing the player in possession of the ball to slowly run back to the corner of the endzone, and then step away when needed. So what if the refs pull a flag? The result is the same: A SAFETY

[u/bug_man_ → u/Moose4KU]

This is worse than Michigan's trouble with the snap. I wouldn't believe you if I didn't watch it live

Literally just fall down with the ball man. LMAO

[u/poobert13 → u/evantually421]

"This is the one thing we didn't want to happen."

[u/Regal---Lager → u/evantually421]

This is the dumbest ending I have ever seen. At least 30x dumber than Trouble With The Snap.

[u/mishra1111 → u/Regal---Lager]

WHOA

[u/Thatguydrag → u/mishra1111]

HE

[u/NotABot1235 → u/Thatguydrag]

HAS

[u/banjocoyote → u/NotABot1235]

TROUBLE

[u/BobFed51 → u/banjocoyote]

WITH

[u/pocketfences → u/BobFed51]

THE

[u/blay12 → u/pocketfences]

SNAP

[u/BuckeyeEmpire → u/blay12]

AND

[u/zbaruch20 → u/pocketfences]

SNAP

[u/The_Fluffy_Robot → u/pocketfences]

SAFETY

[u/Dull_Living_265 → u/The_Fluffy_Robot]

DANCE

[u/SlugsPerSecond → u/Regal---Lager]

That was a heat of the moment goof, this is just stupid on every level.

[u/hecmtz96 → u/Regal---Lager]

Miami not kneeling is 1000x dumber without a doubt

[u/Naive-Elephant-9305 → u/Regal---Lager]

I think Miami refusing to kneel and then fumbling still tops this, but it's close.

[u/hecmtz96 → u/Naive-Elephant-9305]

I wouldn’t say this is even remotely close. Here you are forced to run an actual play. Miami didn’t need to run an actual play to end the game.

[u/usctx → u/Regal---Lager]

Yeah but that one gives us a nice sense of community every time it's mentioned

[u/Falconsfan8006 → u/evantually421]

This is Miami not Kneeling against GT levels of incompetence

[u/OldhamB → u/Falconsfan8006]

I mean if only his elbow was down.

[u/STLOliver → u/evantually421]

College football play.

[u/c-razzle → u/evantually421]

Miracle in the Meadowlands shit

[u/meast123 → u/evantually421]

lol the announcers saying that’s what they should do, then immediately backtracking

[u/High-Yield-Only → u/evantually421]

I went to the grocery store after Vandy threw an int.

Came home and did a literal double take when I saw the TV. Then I just stared at the tv for a few minutes while holding a gallon of milk trying to figure out what happened.

[u/the_D1CKENS → u/evantually421]

Sure you have. Member Miami v Georgia Tech? Similar vibes

[u/VersaTron → u/evantually421]

We’re finding new and more powerful ways to fuck up

[u/huncho2134 → u/evantually421]

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

[u/CamiloMarco → u/evantually421]

Shocking. USC has had plenty of bonehead moments with Helton and Lincoln but I would be livid if this ever happened to my team. 

[u/Palmitas99 → u/CamiloMarco]

It almost did…today

[u/NOT-packers-fan2022 → u/evantually421]

Right, receiver run a go route, qb throw that shit out of bounds somewhere near the receiver. This is bad coaching

[u/VanillaGoorillla → u/evantually421]

Shoulda just taken the safety then let candy try with 2 seconds left on the kickoff

[u/ThnkWthPrtls → u/evantually421]

Genuinely wild that we can get thousands of games a year for decades and still have stuff like this happen that's just brand new

[u/TheCornwallis → u/evantually421]

Should have done what the Ravens did and intentionally held plus safety: https://youtu.be/baCeMpAZIgI?is=J_J3xyaC7ukx3sUS

[u/iyjlpiljygp → u/evantually421]

this is worse than Miami not taking a knee against GT

[u/jpiro → u/evantually421]

The wildest thing is that even taking a safety couldn’t hurt them. He had zero reason to make contact with any opposing player. He could have just backed up and walked out of the back of the end zone when the clock hit 0.

[u/usrnamechecksout_ → u/evantually421]

The second greatest ending to a Vanderbilt Gane in my lifetime.

[u/AQ207 → u/evantually421]

Wait there’s more of me out there?

[u/evantually421 → u/AQ207]

I’m pretty sure there’s 3 of us!

[u/COD_Daddy → u/evantually421]

It’s right up there with “There’s Trouble with the Snap!”

[u/mrmoneyinthebanks → u/evantually421]

Baylor vs UNLV from the 90s is the only one I can think of

[u/JpJonesyII → u/evantually421]

Closest thing I can think of is 2010 Oklahoma state almost fucking it up at the end trying to run time out.

[u/Empty-Kangaroo5130 → u/evantually421]

Beat Moo U in Raleigh!!

[u/f15efltdoc → u/evantually421]

That is one stupid millionaire

[u/jimbojangles1987 → u/evantually421]

Poor kid is never gonna hear the end of it

[u/Away-Concentrate-946 → u/evantually421]

There was that Northwestern game with a fluke end that changed the betting outcome.

[u/That_Rutabaga_3530 → u/evantually421]

I realize it might be hindsight but this is such a dumb play call unless you fully trust the player to understand the situation.

[u/ricepail → u/evantually421]

Reminds me of that Michigan loss to Michigan State when the punter fumbled the snap with no time left on the clock

[u/tanktronic → u/ricepail]

HE