Big Ten football is off to a fantastic start. The first scoring play of the season came exactly the way you thought it would off of a punt.
No, it wasn’t a punt return. Of course not. That would’ve made too much sense.
Instead, it was a safety. Yep. That’s right. A safety. Off of a punt. That was fielded outside of the endzone. Not kidding. It really happened.
Illinois’ Blake Hayes punted the ball and pinned Nebraska’s Cam Taylor-Britt between the five-yard line and the endzone.
Now, clearly, the play here is to clear out and let the ball bounce where it may. Field position was probably going to be terrible, but at least you avoid a muffed punt and, ya know, the safety.
But Taylor-Britt fields it anyway. And Illinois’ punt team is there immediately when he fields the ball. He stumbles and tries to get back up, but then he realizes he’s in the endzone.
So what does he do? He throws the ball forward. He passes it. Forward.
We have reached peak B1G already, a punt return safety with an illegal forward pass pic.twitter.com/h5KyR8UpXt
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 28, 2021
Now, look. I’m not an official. I would never be a football official. But even I can just look at that and know that can’t be legal. Ain’t no way.
Turns out it wasn’t. It was an illegal forward pass, which totally makes sense. And because it happened in the endzone, the play dies there and it’s an automatic safety.
And that, folks, is how the first score of the Big Ten football season happened.
It wasn’t a punt return or a kick return. Nobody ran the ball in for a score or threw a strike down the field. Nope. It was an illegal forward pass on a punt that led to a safety.
Perfect. Just perfect.
By the way, Blake Hayes for Heisman if he keeps punting the ball perfectly like this. He’ll have plenty of them for Illinois this season.
