No. 25 Washington wasted no time in getting tricky Saturday in its home game against No. 12 Oregon. The problem was the Huskies got a little too tricky and were dealt one of the greatest unsportsmanlike conduct penalties ever.
The Ducks got on the board first, scoring on the opening drive. And then on the kickoff return, Washington tried to hide a player on the field to deceive Oregon and was flagged.
With Washington wearing purple uniforms, wide receiver Chico McClatcher was deep on the goal line for the kick and eventually, he was lying down on the field, blending in with the purple end zone. The whole point here was for him to be behind the ball and receive a pass, which he did and then took off down the sideline.
But apparently hiding on the field is not OK, so officials handed Washington an unsportsmanlike penalty.
ESPN’s rules expert Bill Lemonnier explained the rule, as officials appeared to do the same for Washington coach Chris Petersen:
“One of the things they put in a year or two ago was you cannot take a player and lay him down to decoy like he’s not on the field. And he laid down in the end zone to blend in with the end zone, so the kicking team couldn’t see him. Then he got up, and he’s the guy that caught the backward pass. That’s why it’s an unsportsmanlike conduct foul.”
This play was amazingly deceptive and worked with McClatcher being chased out of bounds around the 50-yard line. Unfortunately for the Huskies, it was evidently so deceptive that it’s against the rules.
