Sometimes, watching sports, we all become Jack Buck.
As in, I don’t believe what I just saw.
In the biggest college football game of the year, undefeated No. 1 Alabama was upset by No. 4 Auburn on a 100-yard missed field goal return by Chris Davis with no time left on the clock.
It’s hard to even know where to start with this one.
First of all, why was Nick Saban attempting a 57-yard field goal with a redshirt freshman kicker who had two career attempts? Poor Adam Griffith was out there because Cade Foster had missed his three previous attempts, but the fact they even got an attempt was crazy to begin with.
Alabama was ostensibly running out the clock to go to overtime when T.J. Yelden broke a few too many tackles and hopped out of bounds with :01 left in the game. But the officials initially ruled the game over and actually only went back, reviewed it and added the last second because Saban was lobbying for it.
Fair enough, but everyone expected a Hail Mary. But no, he chose to kick it.
So Davis went back and caught the ball nine yards deep in the end zone and took it all the way back. (Technically, it goes into the record books as a 100-yard return.)
“[Head coach Gus Malzahn] told us, ‘Watch the fake,”” Davis told CBS of what he was told before the kick. “When I caught it, I just ran, [and] tried to make something happen for the team.”
Make something happen, you did.
The loss puts Auburn (11-1) in the SEC Championship Game and ends the dreams of Alabama (11-1) going to the National Championship. The only place nearly as loud as Auburn right now is Ohio State (12-0), which now holds the inside track on making the title game.
Of course it was just two weeks ago that Auburn beat Georgia on another miracle play, with Nick Marshall hitting Ricardo Lewis on fourth-and-18 with 36 seconds left.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports.
