The time was 7:41 p.m. in Durham, NC on Halloween night. The Duke Blue Devils football team just scored a go ahead touchdown with an added successful two-point conversion to give itself a 27-24 lead over the Miami Hurricanes with six seconds remaining in a contest of Coastal Division foes. The Blue Devils were just moments away from advancing to a 7-1 overall record and an undefeated mark of 4-0 in the ACC. That was until the most wildly improbable sequence of events that you may ever come across occurred.

With six seconds remaining, senior placekicker Ross Martin teed the ball up to kick off to the Hurricanes for the final play of the game. Martin sent the ball downfield with a bouncing squib kick that was fielded by redshirt senior free safety Dallas Crawford at the Hurricanes own 26-yard line. 

Upon fielding the ball, Crawford took three steps forward then hurled the ball backwards to the far left side of the field where junior cornerback Corn Elder received the ball. Elder then advanced the ball to the Hurricanes’ 33-yard line where the junior juked and reversed back to the Canes’ 27-yard line and made the play’s second lateral.

Five laterals later (including one in which the runner appeared to be down) and the ball was in Dallas Crawford’s hands again; but this time, he was way back at the Canes’ own 3-yard line. Crawford advanced the ball to the 10-yard line before cutting across field to the 19-yard line. 

Then, as if the Red Sea itself had parted, a window of opportunity flashed into view. With five Duke defenders focused on Crawford’s progression and two others positioned on the right side of the field, just four Duke defenders remained on the left side to deter five Miami players. 

Crawford seized the opportunity and tossed the ball across the field again to Corn Elder. Elder took the ball in stride sprinting up to the Canes’ 20-yard line finding blocks for two of the four defenders. Crawford received two more blocks at the Canes’ 43-yard line before nearly stepping out of bounds. 

Duke senior running back Shaquille Powell made an athletic play by sprinting nearly thirty yards in an attempt to recover and stop Elder’s advances. However, Elder was too elusive, as the junior put on the brakes and evaded the charging Thomas. The path was then wide open for Elder to run for forty more yards for the game-winning touchdown.

Not so fast, though. Seconds later, head referee Jerry Magallanes came over the loudspeaker to announce a block in the back penalty against the Hurricanes on the return which would negate the touchdown and result in a 10-yard penalty at the spot of the foul followed by an untimed down for the offense. Immediately afterwards, Magallanes jogged over to the monitors to review the possibility of a Miami runner being down before the third lateral of the play. 

The problem with Magallanes’ actions were twofold. First, he never specified what Miami Hurricanes player committed the block in the back penalty and where this foul occurred. Before anything else occurred, the officials should have notified the coaching staffs and the crowd where the penalty occurred and where the ball would be spotted. 

Secondly, when Magallanes announced to the crowd that there was a block in the back penalty and then walked over to the monitors, his actions were inexplicably stating that the penalty (wherever it occurred) would stand. This fact is because a penalty cannot be reversed as a result of video evidence.

So, never mind the picture, which started trending on social media almost immediately after the play, of the Miami runner being clearly down on the third lateral of the kick return. That picture was a high resolution view that the officials did not have access to during the game. Upon review, it may have been impossible for the officials to find “indisputable video evidence” to rule that the runner’s knee was down.

It was the improper procedural followings by the referees, rather than the blown call on the runner’s knee that ultimately decided the Blue Devils’ fate. If the officials would have followed the proper procedures, the penalty would have undoubtedly remained even after video review. The touchdown would have then been negated and the Hurricanes would be left with only a desperation Hail Mary chance to win.

Despite the officials’ failures, Saturday night’s game between Duke and Miami will live in infamy as perhaps the wildest finish of any game of the entire century.