NC State Gets Absolutely Clowned for Blowing Game With Bozo Play: ‘Dumbest Loss Ever’

Say a prayer for those poor souls who bet on North Carolina State to beat Vanderbilt.

The NC State Wolfpack were six second away from beating Vandy 31-28 on Saturday when things went terribly awry. While up against his own end zone, quarterback CJ Bailey dropped back and tried to burn the last few seconds on the clock by running around — only to be immediately swarmed by several Vanderbilt defenders, including edge rusher Miles Capers, who soared in and hit the ball out of Bailey’s right hand.

Vanderbilt jumped on the loose ball, resulting in a touchdown. The stunning play gave Vandy a last-second victory, with the fans in the Tennessee crowd going wild as the Vandy players raised their arms in triumph and hugged their coaches as they raced onto the field.

The NC State players were in utter disbelief, with a few of them putting their hands up to their helmets and standing motionless.

As many pointed out on X right after the game, if Bailey had simply absorbed a hit and taken a safety — resulting in a two point score for Vandy — NC State still would have won. Or he could have chucked the ball down the field right as he was about to get smacked. In other words, for those not familiar with football: what the QB did was the absolute worst-case scenario move.

And to really turn the knife, the game clock manager put one second back on clock, allowing Vanderbilt to kick the extra point and win the game 35-31. That really mattered to gamblers, because Vanderbilt was favored by 3 or 3.5 points on most betting sites. So the 7 point swing saved Vandy gamblers and killed NC State bettors.

Unfortunately for Bailey, he was absolutely raked across the coals for his boneheaded play.

CBS Sports analyst Todd Fuhrman called it the “single dumbest play in the history of college football given time, situation, and experience level of the QB.”

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons asked if it was the “single worst” botched win since the New York Jets choked away a game with a terrible fumble in 1978.

Fox News reporter Joe Concha called it the “dumbest loss ever… Ever. No contest whatsoever.”

And plenty of others ripped NC State for giving away the seemingly guaranteed victory, and some called for head coach Dave Doeren to be canned over it.

The win pushed Vanderbilt to 3-0 and dropped NC State to 1-2.

Watch above.

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