I don't know how the dude in the booth escaped from Vaught-Hemingway without having his eyes ripped out and chewed up by the Orgeron. I've scoured the NCAA rulebook, and I can find no authority allowing the replay official to throw a flag that was not thrown on the play. I'm all for getting the call right, but this was pretty ridiculous. The receiver-out-of-bounds rule is stupid anyway. It should only be enforced when someone is actually trying to hide from the defense by sneaking out of bounds. Certainly not where it wasn't called on the field, and where it robs a team of the opportunity to, at the very least, send the game to overtime, and maybe even win it in regulation. This seems to set a dangerous precedent. Can every play now be reviewed to see if, say, the officials missed a holding call on the offensive line?
UPDATE: I am a dumbass. The review was authorized, and the rules prohibit the booth official from calling most penalties. Still, I agree with this columnist that there certainly could be dispute over (1) whether Hodge was forced out of bounds, and (2) whether the defender touched the ball before Hodge did. If there could be dispute, the ruling on the field (no flag) must stand. I have no allegiance with either team, but for Bama, it just has to taste sour to win this way.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Bama v. Ole Miss: Total Hose Job
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One of my readers claims that the replay situation is legit based on this:
http://www.secsports.com/doc_lib/fbc_replay_policy.pdf
Under "Reviewable Plays"
2. Passing Plays:
b. Touching of a foward pass by an ineligible receiver.
Thanks for the info. It's still a stupid rule when a guy just accidentally steps out of bounds on his way down field. It's not like the defender stopped covering him because his foot hit the line. Maybe they should put some sort of limitation on calling the penalty when out of bounds step has no impact on the play, similar to no interference on an uncatchable pass. There's no way you could say the Ole Miss receiver was trying to cheat by stepping out of bounds. That kind of shit should never decide a game.
It has been disgusting to watch the officials win three games for Bama. They do not even try to hide the fact they are looking for ways to help them win.
In the Vanderbilt game, one of Vandy's first plays from scrimmage was a long pass to Earl Bennet down to the 10 yard line. But a suspicious flag was thrown late because Bennett pushed off. Further review of the tape shows there was no contact. Instead of first and 10 from Bama 10, its first and 20 from Vandy 15. Game changing. Then in the late second quarter Vandy returns a punt for a TD. Another late flag, this time, get this, there was a late flag "facemask on the defensive line." On a punt. Score comes off the board, penalty assessed. Bama ended up winning that game handily, but those two touchdowns would have changed the game, and Vandy could have made a game of it.
In the Arkansas game there was a phantom pass interference call that kept a late Bama drive alive, but the worst infringement was when Bama was driving late, with no timeouts, about 30 seconds on the clock, they run a pass play that is caught over the middle for eight yards. Clearly two yards short of the first down. The officials stop the game for about 2 minutes to measure. They had no business stopping the clock and time should have expired or Bama should have been forced to kill the ball. It was a total joke. And now this "out of bounds receiver" called by the guy in the booth is another example of the concentrated evil that is NCAA officials and Alabama. Sickening.
Is that a penalty though? I thought it was catch/no catch rule (like if the receiver was out of bounds or not). I don't think you get penalized for it, just that the catch is taken away. Maybe I'm wrong though.
Since they instituted replay, I've thought they need to sit down every replay official and explain wht the word indisputable means and make them use it correctly in a sentence.
If you are truly looking for indisputable evidence, there's no reason most reviews should take more then five seconds.
anon-
A few years back this happened to UGA. It was D.J. to Gibson (pretty sure it was the '04 UT game).
We were called for 'illegal touching'. 5 yards and loss of down.
"[F]or Bama, it just has to taste sour to win this way."
Nope. Not this year, at least.
RTR
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