A wild sequence occurred near the end of the third quarter of the marquee matchup between the fifth-ranked Washington Huskies and 18th-ranked Utah Utes on Saturday.
With 30 seconds remaining in the quarter and the Utes 24 yards away from a touchdown to retake the lead, quarterback Bryson Barnes threw a pass that was intercepted by Washington’s Alphonzo Tuputala.
Tuputala had all grass in front of him and ran toward the end zone to give his team a 39-28 lead.
Except about a yard or two short of the end zone, Tuputala dropped the ball in celebration of his impending score.
Not only that, but Tuputala had two teammates who were trailing him toward the end zone, and they also began celebrating without realizing that the ball didn’t cross the goal line.
The one player who did realize it was Utah offensive lineman Michael Mokofisi, who jumped on the ball at the 1 yard-line to give the Utes the ball back.
Washington wound up registering a safety on the next play to go up 35-28 and get the ball back.
As you might imagine, social media had quite the reaction to the situation. Here’s some of it.