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One of the highlight plays from Saturday night's ACC Championship battle between Wake Forest and Pittsburgh came early on when Kenny Pickett torched the Demon Deacons' defense for a huge rushing touchdown. It didn't come without controversy, however, as Pickett faked a slide on the run, which would have surrendered himself as a defenseless runner and signal an end to the play. Since he technically didn't go down, the play was still live and he blazed past the dumbfounded defenders for six points.
KENNY PICKETT FAKED THE SLIDE AND RAN 58 YARDS FOR THE TD 😱 pic.twitter.com/EypNNJZYHE
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 5, 2021
After the game, Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson was enraged and urged the NCAA to take a closer look at the rule to prevent players from taking advantage of it in the manner which Pickett did.
Via ESPN, Clawson said, “If that is the rule, I will just have my guy fake knee all the way down the field, and really, what do you do? So it's something the NCAA is going to have to look at, and you know, you can't fake a slide.”
Clawson has the right to be angry with the play. After all, had his players gone full force after Pickett and the quarterback actually did slide? Flags galore, and a likely ejection for a member of the Wake Forest defense. Pickett absolutely took advantage of a loophole in the rule, and credit to him for doing so. But Clawson makes a good point. With all the protection being offered to quarterbacks in the modern game, surely there has to be some pushback, and this is a prime example of a major flaw within an imperfect rule.
