Utah wide receiver Kaelin Clay had 152 receiving yards on five catches against Oregon. He had zero touchdowns in the game.
Clay had a costly DeSean Jackson moment against Oregon last night. After appearing to haul in a 78-yard touchdown pass, Clay instead dropped the football just before crossing the goal line. As he proceeded to celebrate the touchdown, which looked to give Utah a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter, Oregon’s Erick Dargen walked up to the football, sitting at the goal line with the play still live. Dargen picked it up but quickly lost control as a Utah player, seeing what was unfolding, attempted to gain control of the ball. Dargen’s fumble was recovered by Oregon teammate Joe Walker, who then made his way down the left sideline with a handful of blockers. Walker returned the fumble 100 yards and it was Oregon that would celebrate a touchdown on the bizarre sequence.
Clay, who earlier this season struck a Desmond Howard Heisman Trophy pose in Michigan Stadium, took to Twitter to take full responsibility for the play.I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS GAME BY MY SELFISH ACTIONS...I’ll take this one 😔
— Kaelin Clay (@CALiboy4) November 9, 2014
That’s good, because there really was nobody else to blame for this one particular bonehead play. Did it ultimately cost Utah a chance to upset Oregon? This is hard to say as the play happened early in the game and Oregon still went on to score enough points to win the game even without the quick 14-point swing.
Just a recommendation to any football player out there. If you want to avoid allowing something like this to happen, it might be a good idea to just hand the football to the official after you think you scored a touchdown. Odds will be much better you just scored a touchdown.