BYU Hail Mary Attempt Overturned, Ruled Catch Short of End Zone

Casey Lundquist | 2 Hours Ago

BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts against Arizona State / BYU Photo

It was a wild ending between BYU and Arizona State. BYU's comeback attempt appeared to come to an end when a Jake Retzlaff interception gave Arizona State the football deep in BYU territory. All ASU needed to do was drain the clock or score and the game would have been over. A series of questionable decisions by ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham, however, gave BYU the ball back at midfield with one second remaining. Arizona State fans stormed the field without realizing the game was not over. After more than 10 minutes of delay and trailing 28-23, BYU had one chance for a game-winning Hail Mary.

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw a rainbow near the goal line that was caught by BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts. However, Roberts was tackled two yards short of the end zone and the game ended.

The ball was clearly caught by Roberts. At the time of the catch, however, it appeared the sideline referee motioned that the pass was incomplete. Arizona State fans were already on the field at that point, so the wild scene resulted in statisticians ruling the pass as an incompletion.

That ruling has now been overturned. Instead of motioning that the pass was incomplete, the referee was motioning that Roberts was short of the end zone and the game was over. So the stats from the BYU-ASU game have been updated. The game officially ended on a 49-yard reception from Chase Roberts.

The completion was a significant one for BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff. It gave him 346 passing yards, a career high against FBS competition. Retzlaff's final stat line from the ASU game was 23/38 for 346 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions.

There is a reasonable chance that BYU and ASU could rematch in the Big 12 title game. In fact, it's the second most likely outcome. Given the drama in this game, a rematch would probably be the most entertaining scenario.