You forgot to mention "helmet-to-helmet" when you describe the hard hit.
#41 should sit out for a half (at least).
Badge, it bothers me that you tried to claim that he was going out of bounds. There are posters on here I would expect that from. You are not one of them, please don't become one. That makes a humongous difference and what you said was flat not true.
The set-up for the play:
It was a two score game with 0:05 remaining at the snap so there was no plausible way for Wisconsin to win. However, both teams had something that they at least realistically believed that they were playing for. For Ohio State, the #1 seed *COULD* have depended on stopping Wisconsin there and finishing 13-0 with every game decided by at least two scores. For Wisconsin, the Rose Bowl *COULD* have depended on getting that TD and finishing closer to tOSU than Penn State did.
As it turned out, neither of those things were riding on that play. Ohio State got the stop and didn't get the #1 seed anyway. Wisconsin failed to score and got the Rose Bowl anyway. Neither team knew that at the time so they both could realistically have believed that something important would be decided by that play.
Now the play, as I see it:
- Coan is in a shotgun standing at his own 14 when the ball is snapped with 0:05 to go.
- Coan takes the snap and drops back to the 17. It appears to be a designed draw because he doesn't appear to even look for an open WR, he just takes off from the 17 at 0:04 to go.
- Coan crosses the 15 just as the clock switches to 0:03 from 0:04 and at that point he is ahead of the five tOSU defenders that had been blitzing him. There is a partially blocked tOSU defender at the 12 yard right hash and nobody else until about the 5 yard line. Ie, Coan has a LOT of green grass ahead of him.
- Just as the clock switches from 0:02 to 0:01 Coan crosses the 10 yard line just outside of the "10" numbering and he has beaten the defender that was partially blocked at the 12 when he crossed the 15 two seconds earlier. That defender is now chasing him to the corner but Coan can't make it without contact. In addition to that guy inside of him, there are four tOSU defenders reacting to his run and beginning to close in and Coan obviously can't make the Pylon without contact.
- Coan continues running upfield and toward the sideline until he gets to the 6 yard line. Then, just as the clock switches to 0:00 Coan makes a hard cut inside. That was Coan's only choice if UW wanted to score because he didn't have time to get out of bounds and he didn't have the angle to beat the defense to the pylon. Instead he made a cut to head inside. It almost worked. If you pause the game right as the clock hits 0:00 Coan's left foot is on the 5 yard line and he is turning inside. There are four tOSU defenders between him and the goal line but all four are heading toward the sideline. Inside of them there is one potential UW blocker (#6) and there is a whole lot of green grass. If Coan had been able to cut inside a little harder he might have made it but he didn't.
- But for Proctor, Coan might have scored. The other three tOSU defenders in position to impact the play at that point were between Coan and the goal but they were also inside so they couldn't hit him head on to stop his momentum. All they could have done would have been to try to push him out of bounds before he got there.
- As Coan crosses the four yard line moving toward the three and moving directly upfield (he is no longer moving toward the sideline as his cut at the six changed that) he and Procter are about to collide. Proctor lowers a shoulder while Coan also leans into the hit and Proctor just obliterates him. The contact starts at the three yard line and Coan is stood up and stopped in his tracks. At the same time #39 for Ohio State hits both players and pushes everybody out of bounds at the three.
One reason that the sideline issue is so important to me is that I think it matters based on my reading of the rule as posted by
@CWSooner . Part of the definition of Targeting is when a player "takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attaching with forcible
contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball." (Emphasis mine). If this had occurred as Coan was going out of bounds anyway then it would appear to meet the bolded part of that quote. It didn't. Coan was advancing the ball toward the goal line and Proctor stopped him. He had to hit him hard to stop his progress toward the goal line and he did.
At the moment of impact Proctor's right shoulder hits Coan's left shoulder. I see that as the initiation of contact and it isn't with the crown of Proctor's helmet or to the head or neck of Coan.
