#MACtion could have gone wrong without replay.

There have been plenty of cases of instant replay getting calls wrong or failing to fix calls that were incorrect in the first place, but in Thursday night’s Mid-American Conference (#MACtion) game between the Toledo Rockets and the Northern Illinois Huskies on ESPNU, replay appears to have saved the day.

Deep in Northern Illinois territory thanks to an 89-yard pass on the previous play, Toledo quarterback Logan Woodside dropped back to pass, then scrambled forwards towards the end zone, but lost the ball before he got there and saw it recovered by a Huskies’ player. However, the officials initially called it a touchdown on the field:

That prompted some Twitter outrage:

But the replay eventually got it right. Here’s a look at the replay, and at the officials’ eventual call:

And, oddly enough, the poor on-field call actually wound up working in Northern Illinois’ favor. If this had been correctly ruled a fumble and a recovery, Huskies’ safety Mycial Allen’s ill-advised decision to run the ball out after he recovered it could have cost his team, as he was tackled just over the goal line and Northern Illinois would have started from there.

But the officials blew the play dead for the touchdown, meaning that Allen’s clear recovery still counted, but anything after that didn’t, giving the Huskies a touchback and the ball on their 20-yard line instead. So, in the end, Northern Illinois fans in particular should be very grateful for replay in this one.

[Clippit]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.