Teams from every sport will do anything to gain an edge, even when that’s an unpopular move. Faking injuries might be a popular tactic in soccer but teams in other sports can sometimes utilize this act of the “dark arts” to gain an advantage.
Georgia Southern tried to do this. Up three with 21 seconds left, Georgia Southern players Jay Bowdry and C.J. Wright went down with apparent injuries to buy some time on the fourth down play. The problem is that when two players go down at the same time, it gets more and more obvious that they’re faking their injuries. And when Appalachian State player Noah Hannon called them out on it, Bowdry jumped up to get in Hannon’s face, essentially confirming that he was faking the injury.
In the replay, you can really see the coordinated effort of the two players going down at the same time. It’s some nice choreography but some terrible acting. Georgia Southern had one time out so surely they could have done that but they chose to risk being caught faking injuries.
Appalachian State would convert the fourth down but after two straight incomplete passes, they could only get the ball to midfield when the clock struck zero. Georgia Southern would protect the 24-21 victory.
