The California Golden Bears gave the Southern Utah Thunderbirds a gift as the first half ended on a pass interference penalty on cornerback Steve Williams that gave an extra 15 yards to work with. Quarterback Brad Sorensen took advantage of the gift with a hail marry pass to the back of the end zone for wide receiver Cameron Morgan.
He makes the incredible one-handed catch and the ruling on the field that got made a touchdown. California challenged the call and after a relatively short review the replay officials confirmed the call on the field. Yet the question that comes from seeing multiple angles of the catch did it get called correctly?
Defensive back Michael Lowe knocks the ball away and instead of batting the ball down to end the half the ball goes up which allows for cornerback Marc Anthony to make a play on the football. The two fail to do so, which allows for the opportunity for Morgan underneath to make the play one-handed while falling out-of-bounds.
With the ball being tipped he didn’t get full possession of the football immediately and even though he had his feet in at the time of the call of touchdown it couldn’t be made at that time. The question becomes were the feet only part of the play that got concentrated on? When he does finally gain possession of the football he’s out-of-bounds meaning that the call on the field needed overturning not confirming a touchdown.
Also, when did he get possession of the football and if he is in bounds at the time of the catch? From all appearances his backside is out-of-bounds when he does which means incomplete. He deserves credit for making a great effort to even make it that close to a touchdown and in the end the Thunderbirds received two gifts the pass interference penalty and the blown review.
Here’s the video of the catch:
Thanks to ESPN for the video.
