I’m watching a lot of football these days. I may be watching more than I did when I was simply a fan and hadn’t even considered I might someday be officiating games.
It’s not that I don’t watch the games for the actual play, because I do, but I can’t help but take a greater interest in what I can see of the officials on the field and how their work is discussed by the guys in the booth, broadcasting to the home audience, disseminating all sorts of opinions and (mis)information about rules and the game in general.
I have thoughts about such things, of course.
About midway through the second quarter of tonight’s game I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you write some of this down (so to speak)?”
Now I have. Rather, now I will have.
The first thing I notice is the new pre-game handshake between teams at midfield. Since it’s the first of its kind I’ve seen, I’ll just assume it is, by nature, a bit of an awkward-looking event. I noted two officials nearby in some observatory capacity, but from what was shown on the broadcast, it’s hard to know what their role in the entire thing was.
I applaud the idea behind the pre-game handshake, but don’t necessarily have an optimistic view on how much impact it will have on ’sportsmanship’ once the contest gets going. I know there is some bad blood between the Ducks and Broncos stemming from a strong hit on the Oregon QB in their meeting last year. That’s not going to be tempered with a forced handshake between a couple dozen players.
At the high school level, teams line up at the fifty-yard line after the game for a handshake. I really like that. Might not be realistic for college football, but think it would be a nice tradition. Who doesn’t like to see the post-series handshakes in the Stanley Cup playoffs? It’s a great tradition
And, moments later, ESPN shows one of those common pre-game jaw sessions at mid-field between players. So…yep.
14:54 – The linesman shows a good solid punch-back on the backward pass by Jeremiah Masoli on the Ducks’ first play from scrimmage. That is (for those who don’t otherwise know this) he extended his right arm toward the backfield, parallel to the ground, signaling to the rest of the crew that he has a backward pass which, should it not be caught, would remain a live ball. I have to tell you, this isn’t the easiest thing to judge.
13:40 – Is that a ’side judge’ marking the punt out-of-bounds inside the five-yard line? We, at the high school level, work with five officials at the most, so I’m not sure which of the extras are which.
Okay, they aren’t really extras. You can’t have too many guys on the field. Five officials can do a very capable job of coverage, but seven makes certain things a lot easier. You get my drift.
6:55 – Selling the call! The receiver for Boise State dives toward the goal line, losing the football as his elbow hits the ground. The Side Judge (easy to ID when you see the big ol’ ‘S’ on the back of his shirt) calmly kills the clock and moves in toward the players, pointing down toward the ground, telling everyone that the player was down before the ball was loose and, therefore, no fumble. However, the best part comes when S gets down on one knee to continue the sell job, slapping the ground with his hand at the approximate spot where the ball hit the ground.
My wife and her friend assure me that this is funny to me and me only. I guess I’m not necessarily adept at selling my calls in such an exaggerated fashion. Then again, there are some/many in the officiating community who do not believe in the idea of ’selling your call.’ Wherever you fall on that topic, you gotta give it to S, you KNEW what he was ruling.
The commentators made a crack about how Boise State, having a reputation for ‘trick’ plays, might have been executing the fumble intentionally.
6:40 – “You never know with Boise State. It might have been a trick play…the way he fumbled that ball.” Then, on the succeeding play on a fumbled hand-off, “another fumble.”
This is just one instance, and a harmless one at that, of a major obstacle to understanding the rules of football or, really, any sport: Rule 2
Okay, I don’t know if it’s rule number two in every rule book, but in the rule books I’ve read, Rule 2 is the collection of ‘definitions.’
See what you did there? You thought, “Oh, well, I already know all the terms and what they mean, so you don’t mean me.” This is precisely why I do, indeed, mean you! Being able to see a fumble and say, “Hey, a fumble” is one thing. However, when a player loses control of the ball when making contact with the ground with the elbow, it isn’t a fumble. Colloquially, sure, it’s a fumble. Call it that or whatever you will. However, in the letter of the law on the gridiron, it’s not a fumble. Hence, the succeeding play didn’t result in ‘another’ fumble.
This may all seem like so much crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, but that is how you have to read and know the rules. There is a new rule, in fact, which has several interesting applications all because of the use of the word “runner.” Again, you think you know what a “runner” is and, well, you do, but it has a certain particular definition on the football field and those distinctions are very important.
Any high school football official reading this knows too well what the rule is. I’ll leave it there for now.
Q2 13:50 – “The offense player lined up in the neutral zone. the play should have been shut down. so we’ve got, basically, a false start on the offense. we’re gonna bring the ball back to the previous spot and mark off five yards.”
That was a pretty good screw-up and I am sure the crew would admit that. The angle of the camera doesn’t really give a good shot where you can see who was lined-up in the neutral zone, but I think we can assume someone was too far forward. However, why the official who flagged it didn’t kill the play if he were meant to will remain a mystery, unless you want to just say something along the lines of ‘first-night jitters.’
12:41 – ESPN just ran the play from the 2008 match between these two teams where the Oregon QB, Masoli, was knocked out of the game.
I believe it’s Bob Davie who is saying the player who made the hit “should have been ejected from that fooball game and this year he would be ejected because of a bigger emphasis on helmet-to-helmet hitting above the shoulders contact.”
First, you don’t have to be an official to see the general flaw in the above statement. If he should have been ejected last year, but was not, then it’s not necessarily a given that he would be ejected for the same hit today. I don’t believe, from watching the replay, that the official saw it and deemed it okay. It was a vicious hit where the defensive player initiated contact with his helmet to the quarterback’s head.
I’m not sure what the NCAA rule is regarding such contact and what would lead to an actual ejection. It’s an easy 15-yard penalty, to be sure. I wish Davie were able to site a rule or something other to indicate the NCAA is asking officials to eject players who lead with the helmet. Othewise, it’s hyperbole.
11:41 – I couldn’t have scripted this much better. As Boise State QB Kellen Moore slides to the ground, an Oregon defensive player (T.J. Jones) dives at him near the ground. It looks like he’s leading with his helmet on the hit, which was somewhat unnecessary to begin with as Moore was clearly going down. He actually was down by the time contact was made. I would have liked to have seen that flagged for a late hit at the very least. However, I don’t think you eject the kid. I don’t think Bob Davie thinks that either.
Mark Jones says, “both coaches have told us there is going to be a bit of a gray area in this rule with helmet-to-helmet contact.”
“Exactly…I’m surprised the WAC conference officials didn’t call that because, as you know, early in the season when there’s a new rule change, particularly on a nationally-televised game, the officials like to show the emphasis on the rule change. I’m surprised it wasn’t called,” answers Davie.
At this point, the responsible thing would be to show a graphic with last year’s and this year’s rules, highlighting the differences. They’ve been talking about it for a few minutes now, but have yet to actually clarify what the rule IS!
Further, I take completely umbrage to the assertion that officials would be looking for an opportunity to “show the emphasis” on any rule change by flagging it at any and all opportunities, as Davie seems to imply here. I know that isn’t how your average high school-level official would handle the situation, so I feel safe thinking the same of guys who’ve progressed to the NCAA. Even more offensive would be the thought that the game being on national television would also somehow influence the decision-making process. That may be true for the broadcasters in their work. In this instance, they may very well be trying to flex their rules-knowledge muscles with this discussion on a nationally-broadcast game, but officials cannot afford to think and work like that.
In other words, what Bob Davie said right there was a big pile of you know what.
10:56 – The hits keep on coming thanks to a defensive pass interference call against Oregon. With the ball in the air, Oregon DB Thomas Jackson III, clearly gives a slight shove to Boise WR Austin Pettis along the sideline. It didn’t seem to budge him much off his route, but could definitely have impeded the receiver slightly as he ran toward the ball, knocking him slightly off stride. It isn’t the most-egregious DPI you’ll ever see, but it is DPI by definition. Great call.
“That is great coverage to that point…I don’t see a little contact. I promise you, if Thomas Jackson would have looked back, that would not have been called…that couldn’t have been one of those make-up calls, could it?”
Bob Davie has officially become someone I actively dislike in the booth. These sorts of comments may seem harmless in many contexts. However, as an “expert,” Davie is planting seeds in the minds of those watching the game. Some of these people then go out to their kids’ games and think the officials there are making “make-up calls” and misunderstand the pass interference rule. Some of those people are then willing to use all sorts of colorful language and action to let their fellow parents, the kids, and, of course, the officials, just what they know they are seeing, engendering all sorts of poor sportsmanship not so easily cleaned up with the occasional pre-game handshake.
I got my eyes and ears on you Bob Davie. Be warned!
7:05 – Not so much an officiating thing here, but what are you doing ESPN?! While the director is showing us shots of students who’ve painted themselves orange and blue, it sounds like Boise State has lined up in a unique formation for a two-point conversion (oh, did I mention they scored a TD to go up 6-0?). I mean, it sounds that way because I’m being told about it, but the director refuses to show the actual football game. They cut to it too late to see the sort of play which is one of the best reasons to watch Boise State games! Horrible!
“That is as funky a formation as you are going to see in a football game,” offers Jones.
Well, it’s as funky a formation as YOU are going to see because none of us got to see it!
Coming back from commercial, it appears someone is awake in the production truck; we get a replay of the successful two-point conversion. Thank you! It was pretty nifty.
Another non-officiating point: Oregon is STRUGGLING. They manage to be down only 8-0 nearing the half, but they look horrible on yet another short series. Must be a big step from offensive coordinator to head coach as this team looks nothing like the crazy offensive machine of the last few seasons.
3:54 – SAFETY! Boise now up 10-0. It feels like they are throttling Oregon and should be up more than 10. Seems like an ominous score, especially if the Ducks ever snap out of their funk, which doesn’t seem likely at this point.
3:12- Another DPI against Oregon. They can’t keep their hands off the receivers. Actually, I didn’t see the entire play. I think the receivers were off screen when contact was initiated. The ball bounced off the shoulders of Pettis, hit the ground, and ended up in the hands of the Oregon defensive back, whereupon it was his duty to pretend he caught it, as it all happened very quickly, as things tend to do in football. As the officials gather to discuss what they saw, since it did look like Oregon’s Pettison Thurmond might have intercepted the ball (he didn’t), Jones says, “there are a lot of these official conferences on the field regarding completions and incompletions today.”
I’ve not noticed any until now, but don’t see any harm in talking about it. Like I said, things move fast.
1:07 – False start. They killed it this time. No reason to harp on that one, though I’m sure they will discuss it amongst themselves at halftime.
:56 – Field goal for the Broncos makes it 13-0. This is not the best game I’ve ever watched. At least I have Bob Davie.
:23 – Another false start killed appropriately gives me the opportunity to note that the Head Linesman seems to have some very long arms. When he kills the clock, it’s all arms. Good stuff. Heck, he just came in on the next play with the ‘incomplete’ signal, and that looked epic!
Oregon seems to be slouching off the field. All the pre-game hype was about vengeance, but they didn’t come properly prepared. This is a butt-whippin’.
