4th And Forever Against Georgia Tech Wins BCI’s Worst Call Of The Year Award

BC Football started off their season against the Yellow Jackets in Dublin on a Saturday morning back in September. For three quarters the teams traded shots, and BC was looking like a much different team than we saw in 2015. The offense was able to put up some points, albeit only 14, but the BC defense looked stout against Georgia Tech’s tricky triple option offense.

Enter the 4th quarter. BC had a 14-10 lead. After going three and out, and only gaining two yards, Georgia Tech’s offense was falling apart at the seems. On first down, GT quarterback Justin Thomas threw an incomplete pass, second down, BC bullrushed him and landed a beautiful nine yard sack. 3rd and 19, and it looked like BC had this game in the bag. Our excitement only grew when Thomas threw another incomplete pass this time to Ricky Jeune.

4th and 19. BC just had to keep the play in front of them, and their ACC winless streak would be over. The defense, who had played exceptionally all game, just needed to prevent a big play, and against a team that hardly ever threw the ball (though Thomas had good success against BC on the day). What happened?

Look at that coverage. Woof. First BC rushed only four, and put everyone back in coverage, in what looked like some sort of soft zone. Justin Thomas, found a hole in the coverage, and found Qua Searcy wide open for a twenty yard catch. Unbelievably a team that had a quarterback who was basically a glorified running back, beat BC with his arm. It was a call that had lots of us baffled, because for the past few calls, when BC got a pass rusher in Thomas’s face he looked completely uncomfortable. But on this play he had a completely clean pocket, and got rid of the ball with no resistance.

The end was inevitable, as GT continued to drive and punched the ball in with a little under a minute left. The game was lost, and BC had to wait another month and a half before they finally won their first ACC game.

Sure there were other lousy moments this year, but having the dreaded ACC losing streak on the ropes and failing to exorcise it on a last minute blown coverage, was brutal and easily the worst call of the year.