On second and 11, Garrett Nussmeier dropped back and floated a 29-yard pass to the front right pylon.
Barion Brown tracked the football and reached his hands out before he crossed the goal line. As his right foot hits the turf, the referee rules him short of the endzone, but says he caught the ball.
However, the next few minutes left many college football fans around the country shocked.
During Saturday’s game between Clemson and LSU, controversy struck late in the third quarter. LSU had the chance to take the lead and put itself in the driver’s seat.
Taking a shot on second and long, Nussmeier turned to Brown for a big play — but the call would eventually be overturned. Not only was it ruled not a touchdown, but not a catch at all.
The referees ruled that Brown did not maintain possession through the ground, and the ball moved and hit the ground, ruling it an incompletion.
In a game where points came at a premium, it was a huge play as both teams struggled to move the ball consistently.
The broadcast commentators, including rules expert and former referee Bill Lemonnier, thought that Brown completed the catch, but the officials disagreed.
“My thought is we had a touchdown,” Lemonnier said on the broadcast. “I thought he had firm control, took a step, got to the end zone. Even hit the pylon where he’d get the ball extended to.”
After an incomplete pass to Zavion Thomas, LSU sent out the field goal unit for a 46-yard attempt, and it went wide left. A 10-point momentum swing and the chance of taking the lead for the first time in the game vanished.
If there was any moment that could kill the momentum of a team and be named as the “climax,” it’s the incomplete pass. However, LSU did not let this moment take over; instead, the Tigers found a way to bounce back.
LSU leaned on its defense. Forcing a quick three-and-out, the defense gave the offense a chance to respond by keeping the game tied at 10-all.
The Tigers marched down the field and found tight end Trey’Dez Green for a jump ball touchdown to take the lead.
After all of the obstacles with the overturned call and the missed field goal, LSU capitalized on the stop from its defense and put them in a position to win the game late.
Clemson had three possessions after LSU’s touchdown, but didn’t have success on any of them, and in the end, the touchdown by Green turned out to be the nail in the coffin.
The way a team overcomes adversity tells you a lot.
LSU felt the momentum slip out of its hands after the incomplete pass and missed field goal. It would’ve been easy for the team to wave the white flag and use this call as something to blame once the clock hit zero. But they didn’t.
The Tigers were able to regroup, put the unfortunate plays behind them and keep their focus on the next snap and not what happened before. This helped them bounce back from a slow start to eventually take the game over Clemson.
With a challenging season ahead, now LSU can look back on this game and see how the team overcame a tough situation on the road against a top-5 team.
