Central Michigan Stuns Oklahoma State With Upset Win on Controversial Hail Mary-Lateral Play

Central Michigan knocks off No. 18 Oklahoma State thanks to an incredible (but controversial) Hail Mary play.

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Hail Mary plays make us all aghast when we witness these miraculous things happen. But this Hail Mary play from Central Michigan against Oklahoma State is just classic razzle dazzle-style of football that made this much sweeter than seeing someone catch a long ball in the end zone.

The score was 27-24 in favor of the Cowboys when the Chippewas had the ball on Oklahoma State's 48-year line. Central Michigan quarterback Mason Rudolph threw a Hail Mary pass to Jesse Kroll, who caught the ball and was tackled by four Cowboys at the 12-yard line. But just before he was completely down, Kroll shoveled a lateral pass to teammate Corey Willis who trailed him and ran the ball in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

But according to the rule book, this play should have never happened, and Oklahoma State is widely perceived by many to have been robbed of the win. And even one of the Central Michigan's Mid-Atlantic Conference referees Tim O'Dey believes the same.

After the game, O'Dey cited that Central Michigan had been erroneously given an untimed down that resulted in the play happen as you see in the clip above. The game technically should have been over when Central Michigan threw the ball away on fourth down as the clock expired. Although, the officials conferred and ultimately decided to assess an intentional grounding penalty, which allowed Central Michigan another play at midfield.

"There's a rule that says that the game cannot end on an accepted live ball foul. That's the rule. There's an exception to the rule that says if enforcement of the foul involves a loss of down, then that brings the game to an end. So in that situation, we've had the opportunity to run it back through our hierarchy, which includes the national rules editor, and he confirmed that should have been a loss of down and the end of the game at that point, so that extension should not have happened."

So there you have it. Oklahoma State gets robbed, and we get to talk about how referees are far from perfect. Here are some Twitter reactions in the same tone.

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