WATCH: Florida State punter makes illegal punt instead of gaining first down
In this ACC Atlantic edition of “You can’t do that,” we have Florida State punter Alex Mastromanno looking like he was going to fake a punt — he might’ve gotten the first down if he ran — but after the last second, he dropped the ball and delivered a 66-yard punt… from beyond the line of scrimmage.
The result: A loss-of-down penalty resulting in a turnover on downs that gave NC State the ball in the red zone as they tried to overcome a 17-13 deficit with their backup quarterback in. Pretty much the worst possible outcome for that fourth down play for Florida State.
Fortunately, the defense did as much as it could to bail out the punter for his gaffe, backing up the Wolfpack repeatedly until they faced a 3rd and 40 and opted to run and set up a 53-yard field goal try.
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NC State kicker Chris Dunn tied his career long and brought the Wolfpack within one. The points turned out to be crucial, with the Seminoles ultimately losing by two points.
The Florida State illegal punt was fitting for a game delayed due to lighting malfunctions
Florida State and No. 14 NC State were readying for an 8 p.m. ET kickoff on the ACC Network. Or at least they’re supposed to be. But a lighting issue in Carter-Finley Stadium delayed warmups about an hour prior kickoff.
Multiple videos from the stadium showed malfunctions with the stadium’s LED lighting, while other sections of the stadium lighting were not on as operators tried to fix things.
Check it out below.
The game ultimately kicked off around 8:20 p.m. ET, with much of a delay. But the lights deciding to play fickle shortly before kickoff is seemingly a whole new reason for a game to be held up.