Dumb Wake Forest Penalty Gives Duke an Easy Game-Winning Field Goal

The Duke Blue Devils beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Thursday night in ACC action. The game came down to the last second as Duke’s Todd Pelino kicked a 26-yard field goal to win, 24-21, as time expired in the fourth quarter. Who knows if Pelino would have even had a shot at the game-winner if not for a horrible unnecessary roughness penalty on DaShawn Jones.

With a minute remaining and the scored tied Duke quarterback Grayson Loftis threw the ball across the field to wide receiver Sahmir Hagans. Hagans caught the ball near the first down marker and was immediately tackled by Jones, who wrapped, turned and threw the receiver over his shoulder as he fell backwards. Basically, it was a suplex, which is illegal, and in this case, completely unnecessary.

The pass would have been good enough for a first down right inside the Wake 30, but the penalty moved the ball up to the 15-yard line. One run and one kneel down later Pelino kicked the game-winner.

Who knows what would have happened without the penalty, but it would have taken some more work to get such an easily makeable kick.