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Rosedale Robbery: Social media reacts as officials steal Floyd of Rosedale from Iowa

josh helmer
·8 min read
64

It looked like Cooper DeJean had saved the day once again.

Against all odds, the Iowa Hawkeyes were going to survive and beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Whether the final score was 16-12 or 17-12 or 18-12 with a potential two-point try pending, Iowa was once again going to have won in spite of its offense.

There’s another conversation to be had about Iowa being in the situation it was in in the first place and just how unsustainable its offense is, but let’s deal with the immediate aftermath here.

After a potential game-winning drive stalled out at Iowa’s 41-yard line, the Hawkeyes elected to punt it away to Minnesota instead of going for it on 4th-and-10. The Hawkeyes had all three of their timeouts to work with and would turn one final time to their defense to try and get the football back with one final chance to drive and kick a game-winning field goal.

Inexplicably, the Gophers actually chose to throw the football in between runs of just one and three yards from running back Sean Tyler on the ensuing drive. That meant Minnesota would be punting the football away to DeJean and Iowa.

As Minnesota punter Mark Crawford’s punt skipped past midfield, DeJean signaled for his return team to get away from the football, seemingly deciding not to attempt a return.

Then, at the last moment, DeJean sprung into action, snaring the football at his own 46-yard line. DeJean slipped out of an initial would-be tackle from Minnesota’s Brady Weeks and then raced past a host of Gophers and tiptoed the sidelines to stay in bounds.

DeJean then cut back, evaded another Gopher punt coverage member at the Minnesota 32-yard line and ended his dizzying display with a 54-yard punt return touchdown. It sent Kinnick Stadium into a frenzy.

What a moment. Just like Michigan State. DeJean to the rescue.

Then, of course, the officials decided to get in the way and mar a heroic Hawkeye victory and take away a defining, game-winning moment to capture the Floyd of Rosedale.

After review, the officiating crew ruled that DeJean had signaled for an invalid fair catch, ruling the play dead at the Iowa 46-yard line.

Iowa’s offense did get one final crack at it and of course the sequence led to sophomore quarterback Deacon Hill being sacked and then promptly throwing a game-sealing interception.

Hawkeye fans were collectively outraged. And it feels like the majority of the college football world feels that Iowa was robbed versus Minnesota, too.

Take a look at the reaction and outrage below.

The explanation

You be the judge

Revised final score

Not on this planet or any other

The worst

The absolute worst

'Football guys' say the officials got it right

Nobody letting up

Sick

All-time awful

What even is the definition?

Even Larry agrees

What color is the dress?

Absolutely ridiculous

Return the W

Coop afterwards

Scorched Kirk

Trent has spoken

Armed and dangerous

Robbed

Just brutal

And then there's this

Two things can be true

Both of these can be true, too

The offense is more incompetent

And yet! J-Bo speaks

A nice reminder

Not now, Tom...

If you're into the interpretation thing

Gross

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Story originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire