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Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett used the rules to great advantage Saturday night in the ACC championship game — perhaps to too great an advantage.
The senior scored the game’s first points on a 58-yard touchdown scramble 1:18 into the first quarter. He got free by faking a slide in the middle of the run. The move caused the closing Wake defenders to pull up, lest they hit Pickett and be flagged for a personal foul. Pickett went on by toward the end zone.
But did Pickett deke the Demon Deacons out of their shoes legally?
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NCAA Rule 4, Article 3(r) states: “A live ball becomes dead and an official shall sound their whistle or declare it dead . . . (w)hen a ball carrier obviously begins a feet-first slide.”
The officials’ judgment appears to be that Pickett hadn’t obviously begun his slide and therefore was still a live runner. Or maybe they just missed the subtle move. Whatever the case, Pickett bought himself space by giving the impression he was sliding.
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One officiating expert believes Pickett shouldn’t have been able to keep running. Terry McAulay, who is the rules analyst for NBC’s coverage of Notre Dame football and NFL “Sunday Night Football,” believes Pickett should have been ruled down at the spot he began his fake.
“This play may not meet the letter of the rules, [but] it meets the spirit. The defense is clearly placed [at] a disadvantage. This action should cause the ball to become dead,” McAulay, a former NFL and ACC referee, wrote on Twitter.
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“The defense knows he is protected once he begins a slide, so he smartly let up. That may not happen next time which puts the ball carrier’s safety in jeopardy if he does slide.”
Pickett’s touchdown was one of five combined in the opening quarter. No. 16 Wake Forest (10-2) led No. 15 Pitt (10-2) 21-14 at the end of the period.
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