Vanderbilt’s Stephen Rivers read his wristband wrong and threw a pick-6 (GIF)
Vanderbilt quarterbacks have had some issues throughout the 2014 season and the mistake that Stephen Rivers made Saturday against Georgia might have been the most bizarre one yet.
During the third quarter, coach Derek Mason said that Rivers read the play on his wristband upside down. The play on a fourth-and-two was supposed to be “60” but Rivers read the play as “90.” He threw a pass that was intercepted by Georgia’s Devin Bowman and returned for a TD. Georgia won the game 44-17.
“(Rivers) looked at the wristband wrong (because) 60 was the play call, but 90 is what he called. He sort of flipped it, got it confused,” Mason said via the Tennessean. “In the end, it just wound up being a bad play.”
Ninety was a throwback pass. Rivers rolled to his left and threw back to the right towards TE Steven Scheu. Bowman read it all the way and had no one between himself and the end zone.
Mason said he knew the offense was lined up incorrectly but it neglected to call a time out. The play is simply Vanderbilt’s season in a nutshell. Mason, in his first season as head coach, simply can’t let that happen.
“When you’re down on the clock, one of the offensive coaches needs to make the timeout call instead of getting us into a bad play,” Mason said. “We got into a bad play, and it resulted in a touchdown. That’s on us. … It’s all of our fault.”
The Commodores are 1-5 and the only win came because UMass missed a short field goal late that could have tied the game. Through six games, Rivers, Wade Freebeck and Patton Robinette have completed 47 percent of their passes for 930 yards, three touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
For more Vanderbilt news, visit VandySports.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
