In Reply to: Nope posted by UCLABB on February 15, 2026 at 16:12:15
I take UCLABB's point that $c's possession ended at the end of the '96 game when Cobbs intercepted. But did play end? Was the ball dead when Cobbs dropped it?
As a matter of the rules (not intelligent play), couldn't Cobbs have tried to run the ball out of the north end zone after the INT to try to score a humiliating touchdown in the south end zone and, if he had done that and been successful, wouldn't the score have counted? In the alternative, suppose Cobbs had tried to run the ball out of the north end zone, had fumbled on that play, a trojan then picked up the ball and run back into the north end zone, wouldn't that have been a scum touchdown?
I was sitting near the north end zone when Cobbs made the interception, and I have thought from that day to this that his dropping the ball was strange. BuscH's comment that started this subthread gave me an "Oh Sh!t" moment. Could scum have pounced on the ball after Cobbs dropped it and forced a third OT?
Help me out. I'm not taking a poke at anyone about anything. suc's possession clearly ended on the interception. But was the ball dead upon the INT, so that Cobb's dropping it was an irrelevancy? Or, was the ball still alive, so that we narrowly avoided making Wrong Way Riegel's gaffe only the second worst to occur in the Rose Bowl?