Wednesday's Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium saw lots of weirdness. Dec 27, 2017; Bronx, NY, USA; A general view of the field before the 2017 Pinstripe Bowl between the Boston College Eagles and the Iowa Hawkeyes at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
NCAABy Andrew Bucholtz on

Wednesday’s Pinstripe Bowl was played between Iowa and Boston College in below-freezing temperatures in Yankee Stadium, and as with many weather games, it saw a whole lot of odd moments. Here are ten of the strangest.

10. The moving down-and-distance marker: You don’t usually see the on-screen down-and-distance indicator slide around like this:

9. The keys to the game: No one’s expecting great insight from the “keys to the game,” but ESPN might have mailed this in even more than usual:

Here’s the clip:


8. The drive-lengthening unsportsmanlike conduct for celebrating a sack: Boston College defensive lineman Noa Merritt got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for quite a mild sack celebration with his teammates:

An odd call indeed and one that kept an Iowa drive alive and led to a touchdown.

7.The returner hit by his own blocker: In a return near the end of the first quarter, the biggest hit on Iowa’s Akrum Wadley came from his own teammate, fullback Austin Kelly:

Amazingly, Wadley recovered from that and went on to a massive return.

6. The quick-kick punt downed inside the 1. Under head coach Kirk Ferentz, Iowa has long been known for their punting and for their lack of fourth-down gambles. That made it suspicious when they lined up with regular quarterback Nate Stanley on a fourth-and-five in the second quarter, and that led to Stanley doing a quick-kick punt, and to receiver Nick Easley making a great downfield play to down the ball inside the one-yard line and keep it out of the end zone.

Truly an impressive, if unconventional, display of punting.

5. The tipped-pass TD: A defensive back getting a hand on the ball usually isn’t a good thing for the offensive team. But it worked out just fine for Boston College on this play:

4. The 4th and 8 umpire screen: Going for it on fourth down is unusual enough, but it’s nice when you can throw the pass in a way that the umpire’s between the tackler and your tight end:

3. The basketball shoes: With temperatures of 23 degrees and wind chill making it feel like 15, the game wasn’t a pleasant experience for the players. But it was the unstable footing that made it really bad, and prompted some to switch to shoes that looked more like what you’d wear for basketball:

2. The sliding tackles: Why was that footwear switch necessary? Well, look at how hard it was for the blockers not to slide around:

1. The player who fell down on the ice: Perhaps even more indicative of the ice was the way Boston College’s Thadd Smith just plummeted to the ground untouched on a jet sweep:

And that’s just some of the extremely odd action from this game. Frozen football again is producing bizarre moments.

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.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz

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