Western Michigan’s outrageous, 15-lateral TD was just like Cal-Stanford, except it didn’t count

Absolute chaos.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a frenzied multi-lateral play not work out for the offense this season, but what happened between Western Michigan and Ball State on Saturday was absolutely wild — even by #MACtion standards.

With 29 seconds left in the game, the Cardinals kicked a 22-yard field goal to take a 30-27 lead over the Broncos in a game with the MAC West on the line. Western Michigan’s next drive began on its own 39-yard line, and the Broncos moved up 10 yards before attempting this ridiculous touchdown attempt with just six seconds remaining.

After 13 passes back and forth, the Broncos failed to hold onto the ball, and it looked like Ball State recovered the ball. Not quite. As the Cardinals rushed the field to celebrate prematurely, the Broncos picked up the ball and continued trying to score, lightly weaving through swarms of opposing players.

Eventually, sophomore wide receiver Skyy Moore ended up with the ball again and took off for the end zone, seemingly ending this pandemonium with a game-winning touchdown. (Cut to flashbacks of Cal-Stanford in 1982.)

Absolute chaos.

But unfortunately for Western Michigan, officials overturned the touchdown and penalized the Broncos for an illegal forward pass somewhere in there. Our best guess is around the 21-second mark in the ESPN video where the ball appears to be thrown around the 32-yard line and caught near the 34-yard line. Both teams were also handed unsportsmanlike penalties.

Here’s another look at the play and doesn’t cutaway after Western Michigan dropped the ball:

Whether or not you think the Broncos were fairly penalized for an illegal forward pass, college football Twitter loved this — though no one was happy for the broadcast cutting away an a very in opportune time.

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