Anthony Melillo looked like he had a screw loose.
On fourth-and-long and the ball on the one-yard line, Penn was clinging to a 7-3 lead over Lafayette, and Melillo, the trusty veteran punter, was going to have to finesse his way out of a tough situation.
But after taking the snap almost underneath the goalposts, he half-faked a punt, danced around the end zone for a few seconds and ducked out of bounds, even though he would have been in no danger of having his kick blocked.
The bewildered Penn crowd seemed to collectively realize something - maybe he did it on purpose.
As it turns out, that's exactly what happened. After backup running back Kelms Amoo-Achampong was dumped behind the line of scrimmage on third down, coach Al Bagnoli called a timeout to plot a plan of action. He decided to put on the intentional safety and effectively trade points for field position.
It was a strange play call, especially given that it put the score at 7-5 and the Leopards within a field goal of the lead - a field goal that they would eventually get from freshman Davis Rodriguez.
According to Bagnoli, his thinking would have been different if there were a couple more yards of breathing room.
"I didn't realize the ball was down that tight," he said. "All of a sudden it came down from the press box that the ball was down at the 1. . At that point I was willing to take a gamble, but at the one, I think kicking into the wind the best you're going to be able to do is get the ball out to the 30, 32-yard line."
After the safety punt, Lafayette had just over five minutes to get from its own 48-yard line into field goal range. An incensed Leopards' offense did just that. Penn's defense faltered for really the first time all game, and Bagnoli lost the gamble.
Lafayette quarterback Mike DiPaola was not fazed by Bagnoli's decision to rely on the Penn defense to stop the Leopards, or the fact that his offense had done next to nothing all day.
"All we needed," he said, "was one shot."
