Washington State joined an unfortunate, but exclusive club Saturday afternoon in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl (and yes, that is the actual name of a bowl game).
Ward is the latest quarterback to commit a Dan Orlovsky-esque safety, joining the likes of Jimmy Garoppolo, Cody Kessler and others who have made this mistake while scrambling in their own end zone.
Facing a 3rd-and-14 in the second quarter, the sophomore quarterback was attempting to evade a pair of Fresno State pass rushers when he stepped out of his own end zone. Two referees whistled the play dead and signaled for the safety, and immediately, ABC play-by-play man Joe Tessitore identified the blunder as an “Orlovsky.”
Orlovsky forever catching strays pic.twitter.com/ICcwsTTrOk
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 17, 2022
Ward’s mistake pushed the score to 16-0 in Fresno’s favor. And soon after the play and Tessitore’s call, college football Twitter had a lot of jokes, making Ward the latest player to get the Orlovsky treatment.
Oh no, Cam Ward just went full Orlovsky
— Brendan Dzwierzynski (@BrendanDzw) December 17, 2022
Cam Ward with his best Dan Orlovsky impression.
— Patton Mazzola 🥋 (@pattonmazz17) December 17, 2022
Wazzu is…. coogin it. Ward did the Orlovsky!
— Nathan Thomas (@natethomas02) December 17, 2022
Oh no Cam Ward just pulled an Orlovsky
— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) December 17, 2022
Cam Ward Orlovsky'd! pic.twitter.com/DmJfRnaxQ5
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) December 17, 2022
Cam Ward joins Dan Orlovsky and Jimmy Garoppolo in an elite club of quarterback's who unknowingly ran out of the endzone for the safety. This sums of the Cougar first half perfectly pic.twitter.com/147s3XcHgy
— Alex Crescenti (@alex_crescenti) December 17, 2022