Video: Did Honey Badger Give Ball to Ref Before Scoring on Punt Return?

LSU’s offense hardly showed up in the first half of the SEC Championship Game against Georgia Saturday. They went three-and-out seven times. They only had 12 yards on 11 plays. They had no first downs.

With the offense stagnant, luckily the Honey Badger made a play. Tyrann Mathieu, who is unstoppable on synthetic turf, returned a punt for a touchdown. The question is whether he gave the ball to the ref before crossing the goal line, as the still shot above suggests. What do you think? Here’s video of his punt return:

The Honey Badger is lucky the ref had already signaled touchdown even before he crossed the plane. If he were watching carefully, he probably would have taken that away. In fact, Gary Danielson said the refs would have taken the TD off the board if they had reviewed it.

Thanks to Instant Replay for the screen grab.