Michael Dyer's Controversial Run (VIDEO)

ESPN rated it the number one play of this past bowl season, and the Auburn Tigers might not have won without it.

Auburn running back Michael Dyer pulled out this tremendous 37-yard run with the score tied at 19, despite getting tackled. But he never really hit the ground.

Dyer's tremendous play, in which he essentially used his tackler as a cushion between him and the ground, set the soon-to-be National Champion Tigers up for a field goal to win it 5 plays later.

While there's still some controversy as to whether or not he was actually down, the ruling on the field stood as it was. Watch the video below and decide if he was, in fact, down.

WATCH:

Comments

[sugarmoes]

04:50 PM on 01/13/2011

for "uhavenoface"

(per your response below that i am unable to reply to)

you said:

uhavenofac­e 15 minutes ago (4:20 PM) 44 Fans
Become a fan Unfan
that's not his forearm. that's his wrist. the wrist, like the fingers, thumb, and palm, is a part of the hand.
please take an anatomy class. after that, please take a class in learning the friggin' rules.

i say:

the wrist is above the hand. there is a reason it is called a wrist and not a hand. because it is a wrist and not a hand. if the wrist touches the ground, you are down. the same would hold true for the ankle as it is an ankle and not a foot.

thank you for finally confirming that dyer was down on this play.

from the rules. i'm sure you recognize this passage:

"A player is considered down when any part of his body other than the feet or hands touches the ground or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body, with the sole exception of the holder for field goal and extra point attempts."

[Ryan57ford]

12:38 AM on 01/13/2011

Sucks because the guy was wrapped up, he was tackled, he stopped running, everyone thought the play was over, the replay showed that he was pretty much down (people will argue yes or no forever) but in the end, they should have made Auburn earn it, you should not give a team 40 yards for a play even they thought was over when there is 2 mins left in a tied national championship game... Make Cam earn that Heisman trophy.

[Ryan57ford]

12:30 AM on 01/13/2011

Sucks because if a Oregon guy had come up and drilled him as he was rolling off that defender he would have been called for a late hit... because everyone would have assumed he had been tackled.

[Conk]

12:12 PM on 01/12/2011

How can there be controversy? He clearly did not touch the ground, except for his hands and feet.

[amandab42]

01:14 AM on 01/13/2011

Clearly? Yes, it becomes a little easier to make a judgement when one has the benefit of slow-motion instant replay and multiple angles. As a player on the field it would not have been so clear... obviously. That said, the Oregon players should have played to the whistle, they should have hit that kid so hard that he crapped his pants; he was teed up to get absolutely crushed. Too bad the NFL and NCAA has defenders so scared to make those types of hits, then they give away a national championship on such a flimsy, flukey play.

[sugarmoes]

04:52 PM on 01/13/2011

truth! well said.

[IllegalShift]

09:14 PM on 01/11/2011

Dyer was not down and DJ Williams was not down in the Sugar Bowl. The wrist is a part of the hand by definition.
This post has a lot more details: http://www.illegalshift.com/2011/01/11/review-of-dj-williams-michael-dyer-wrist-plays/college-football/

[sizogee]

08:54 PM on 01/11/2011

I've always felt that if the runner is wrapped up and pulled to the ground, it ought to be a tackle. Plays like this aren't uncommon in the NFL, and it's always felt "cheap" to me. The tackler successfully pulled the runner off balance and to the ground -- it just looks and feels like a tackle. And it led to, I think, a really unsatisfying ending to the game.

I'm a big SEC fan, but this Auburn team is not nearly as good as the recent champs from the SEC. Their defensive line is Fairly decent (see what I did there?) but their defense can't compete with Bama, the Gators, or the LSU Tigers of recent memory. Auburn's defense ranked 55th in a fairly weak SEC, while each SEC champ from the BCS-era has had a top-ten defense.

Auburn's offensive line has been great all year long, though. If Cam Newton comes back next year, his passing game is really going to hurt when he doesn't have six seconds every time he passes.

Oh well - go SEC go!

[dteg]

12:41 AM on 01/12/2011

Agreed. It doesn't really fit into the spirit of the rules. I am not to comfortable with plays like that.

[Oregonian76]

07:37 PM on 01/11/2011

I'm wondering about the forward progress angle on this. Why wouldn't the play have been over from that perspective?

Also, clearly both players thought that the play was over; whatever happened to the ball carrier conceding the play?

In any case, there's enough picture/video evidence online at this point showing that both his ankle and his wrist were clearly down. The officials blew this one, in my opinion.

[Weimer]

07:13 PM on 01/11/2011

By rule it appears that he is not down although it is clear that he has been tackled and stopped. Kind of like the law where truth is not necessarily the goal.

[Tom Joad]

04:33 PM on 01/11/2011

...same thing happened in the Sugar Bowl game, but the player was called down...

http://www.fanhouse.com/videos/video/tagchampionship/sugar-bowl-highlights-ohio-st-v-arkansas/1691762395

highlight at 0:55 mark

[Oregonian76]

07:31 PM on 01/11/2011

I was going to post the same thing. Almost identical plays; how did the officials in the Championship Game miss that? (Hint: they didn't; conspiracy theorists unite around "SEC was supposed to win").

[loneryyder]

03:49 PM on 01/11/2011

It looked to me like the tackler made the mistake of going for the ball, rather than completing the tackle. If he had simply held on to Dyer instead of trying to take ball away toward the end of the tackle, this would be a non issue. It is amazing how many tackles are missed by going for the ball instead of putting the ball carrier to the ground.

[edva]

03:38 PM on 01/11/2011

If this is the rule, then the rule needs to be changed, because the runner was clearly down. Ask 1000 people if they think the national championship should be decided on a play like this. Sad.

[edva]

03:34 PM on 01/11/2011

Show this play to 1000 people, see how many think he wasn't tackled.

[uhavenoface]

03:46 PM on 01/11/2011

1,000 people who actually know the rules, or 1,000 people who think they can make up their own rules?

because there's way more than 1,000 of the former who agree that it was the right call, and nobody cares what the latter think.

[sugarmoes]

05:06 PM on 01/11/2011

the rules say that when something other than your foot or your hand touch the ground then you are down.

his ankle and his wrist both touched the ground. the ankle and the wrist are not the foot and the hand.

[sugarmoes]

04:47 PM on 01/13/2011

(per your response below that i am unable to reply to)

you said:

uhavenofac­e 15 minutes ago (4:20 PM) 44 Fans
Become a fan Unfan
that's not his forearm. that's his wrist. the wrist, like the fingers, thumb, and palm, is a part of the hand.
please take an anatomy class. after that, please take a class in learning the friggin' rules.

i say:

the wrist is above the hand. there is a reason it is called a wrist and not a hand. because it is a wrist and not a hand. if the wrist touches the ground, you are down. the same would hold true for the ankle as it is an ankle and not a foot.

thank you for finally confirming that dyer was down on this play.

from the rules. i'm sure you recognize this passage:

"A player is considered down when any part of his body other than the feet or hands touches the ground or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body, with the sole exception of the holder for field goal and extra point attempts."

[edva]

03:30 PM on 01/11/2011

I saw good sportsmanship by the Ducks in not piling on when Dyer was clearly down. they shouldn't have been victimized for it, especially in a game where the Tiger War Eagles were kicking people in the face. Fact is, the Oregon players played well enough to win, but bad coaching and poor officiating cost them the game. A moral victory for Oregon however, IMHO.

[uhavenoface]

03:47 PM on 01/11/2011

that wasn't good sportsmanship. that was oregon being out of position and not having anybody else close to the play.

[capitalpm]

05:03 PM on 01/11/2011

Nobody close to the play? Really now? I have a feeling Zac Clark (#99), and Terrell Turner (#45) would argue with that point.

[sugarmoes]

05:05 PM on 01/11/2011

no. that was everyone thinking he was down and reacting as such. and then a moment later realizing that, oddly, no whistle had blown so they rightly kept playing. the refs made an honest mistake thinking he had spun on top of the defender and not touched down. however on the replay one can see his right ankle touch down and then his right wrist. the play should've been called back at that point.

[edva]

03:25 PM on 01/11/2011

Who didn't blow the whistle? Oh yeah, the officials. Two wrongs don't make a right.

[edva]

03:22 PM on 01/11/2011

The runner thought he was down. The tackler though he was down. Both teams thought he was down. The fans thought he was down (admit it). He should have been called down. Sad to see a good game, a national championship, once again sullied by poor officiating.