It has been dubbed the “Miracle in Mid-Moe.” Of course, I’m talking about T.J. Moe’s 68 yard touchdown catch and run that sprung the Missouri Tigers to a 27-24 win over San Diego State with the touchdown in the final minute.
That last minute TD was the first time since 1976 that Missouri scored a touchdown in the final minute to come from behind and win a game. The last time was in 1976, a Pete Wood to Leo Lewis touchdown with 12 seconds left to beat 2nd ranked Ohio State in Columbus 22-21.
The national media has been all over this one. ESPN had Moe’s touchdown as one of the top four plays to go along with Arkansas’ last minute tie-breaker touchdown to beat Georgia. Not as impressive because the game was tied and all they needed was to get closer to a field goal. Jay Valai of Wisconsin was nominated for his blocked extra-point which preserved a one point win over Arizona State. The play, and I hate to say this Missouri fans, that I think will win ESPN’s weekly award was Michigan State punter Aaron Bates’ touchdown pass in overtime on a fake field goal to give the Spartans a win over Notre Dame.
However, the only negative about this is Michigan State wasn’t too confident their kicker could even make the field goal to keep the game tied, so they had to try something desperate if they wanted hopes of pulling off the win.
In the case of the Tigers, this was nothing more than a simple seven yard pass route that turned into something special because of two great individual efforts. The first, obviously was the deke Moe pulled on his defender who over pursued. That would have bought Moe an additional five yards before he would wisely go out of bounds. However, what has really been overlooked has been the block that Jerrell Jackson laid on not one but two SDSU defenders which cleared the way for Moe to sprint down the sideline.
I think if more emphasis be placed on the block and teammates working together, fans would realize by far the Moe touchdown was the most dramatic play of the week.
