This might seem remarkable to some, but Thursday had gotten mostly by me before I realize, “Hey, there is college football today!” Hence, I didn’t record this game until the replay was being show in its condensed version in the middle of the night on ESPN. Been pretty busy since then, so the game is a bit stale, but since I’m looking at it more for things interesting to me as an official, that is of little concern.
Q1 12:18 – A Wolfpack linebacker hammers the Gamecock running back in the backfield, jarring the bar loose. Immediately, I see the referee’s bean bag fly into the frame and land exactly at the spot of the end of the run/fumble. That’s pretty good considering he was likely several yards away. Might have to practice my bean bag skills. In fact, I should now realize that despite all the fumbles last night, I didn’t throw mine once. Oops. Gotta work on that.
7:51 – On third-and-one, NC State attempts to get the first down with a run up the middle out of the shotgun. The running back, Jamelle Eugene, was met by a few defenders very close to the (unofficial) yellow line meant to show the home viewer where the ‘line to gain’ is on the field. It’s a great enhancement for football viewing, miles above the glowing puck once used by Fox to the chagrin of hockey fans everywhere. The line, however, is not official. I’m not sure how the determine where to virtually paint it on the field, but it seems to usually be a pretty good indicator, generally. Not sure I’d want to lean on it too heavily for the closer plays. Having slowed the play down for a few repeated viewings, it seems like Eugene was hit very close to where the line was. From where he was holding the ball, I don’t have a problem with thinking the tip of the ball might have just gotten to the front edge of that (again, unofficial) line. And we all already know that the forward progress spot is the important thing here, right?
“It appears he was short of the first down…they gave a great spot though, and it’s going to be a first down,” was the analysis given by one of the commentators (I have no names at this time). His partner followed with, “Absolutely. That was a very favorable spot right there.” To their credit, they dropped it in favor of discussing the game.
Now, I will say that it was definitely close from what you could see on the broadcast, but the angle from which you are seeing it at home does not give a good picture of where the forward progress was stopped. The official who spotted the ball was looking at the play directly and would have made that call with a 90-degree angle to the ball. The line judge would have been looking right through the ball to the line-to-gain indicator and would have been able to say whether the spot was eclipsing the needed spot for a new series, or whether a measurement would have been required. You don’t have to know too much about such things to know that having the right (okay, correct) angle is going to make a huge difference in the call. From a bad angle on television, sure, you might have though it was short or, at least, called for a measure. From the field, I have no idea, but, surprise, would trust the officials.
5:38 – Wolfpack WR Owen Spencer is overthrown slightly, whereupon he looked around in that familiar way players look around for a flag on the ground, or, more likely, is showing he thinks a flag should have been thrown. The defensive back, Akeem Auguste, did a nice job in press coverage, but, on replay, seemed to have grabbed Spencer’s arm, potentially impeding his progress. He might have gotten away with one on that. The funny bit for me is that the defender turned around to move back to his teammates shaking his finger in a Dikembe Mutombo fashion, as if to indicate it were foolish to attempt to throw his direction. It’s funny because he maybe had to cheat a little bit to win that particular battle. Ultimately, though, he did win it. So, kudos to Akeem.
4:52 – A blocked punt reminds me I need to do some rules study. I missed a question on my test Tuesday involving a punt that ended up behind the line of scrimmage. Stupid!
4:40 – On the very next play, South Carolina does what I like to do on the video games after a turnover or blocked kick and goes for a big play. QB Stephen Garcia thows it 65 yards into the end zone and the arms of teammate Tori Gurley. The covering official seemed to be right on top of the play and looking directly at Gurley and the defensive back covering him (C.J. Wilson) who seemed to be in great position until there was some contact at the five yard line and, suddenly, some separation. Gurley had a guilty look about him immediately, which was seemingly confirmed by back judge Michael Watson who appeared to have flagged him for offensive pass interference. No score. Great teamwork by the officials to get the right call.
And, WOW, is that umpire one big fella.
I shall interject here that I have decided I shall make an effort to use the official’s names when and where I can. Hopefully, this will clearly be more out of respect than anything and not to attach a name to any criticism or error.
Q2 8:53 (after a ESPN replay fast forward skips a chunk of action) – Garcia runs the ball and is met by several Wolfpack defenders. The ball comes loose, but umpire Ronnie Jones immediately signals Garcia was down before the ball came loose. I had to slo-mo the slow-mo replay to see it, but, sure enough, Ronnie had it right. These guys are having a very good game so far, in my opinion. The tempo is good, and everyone looks sharp.
Q2 – 6:24 – After a play, linesman Gary Jayroe catches Leroy Burgess doing something his coaches will not be happy he did, costing the Wolfpack an extra 10 yards (half the distance to the goal) after South Carolina had just converted on a third-and-five. Whatever Burgess did happened off screen, but the example of the official keeping his eyes open for activity occurring in the dead ball period between downs is solid.
By the way, it’s 7-0 Gamecocks right now, in case you were, for some reason, waiting for a score. Also, ESPN has moved to the second half.
Q3 7:17 – Garcia rolled out of the pocket away from pressure and threw the ball out of the corner of the end zone. The NC State fans and coaches clearly wanted a call of intentional grounding. I wouldn’t argue that Garcia wasn’t just getting rid of the ball, but grounding would have been tough to call since he was outside the right tackle, if only just barely, and had a receiver running toward the edge of the end zone where the ball landed. Can’t blame them for wanting it, but no way was that, by rule, intentional grounding.
ESPN has skipped a lot of gameplay during which presumably nothing as interesting as poker, or whatever they show in the middle of the night, occurred. I really don’t get why they don’t just rebroadcast the entire game. Granted, there is plenty of opportunity for compressing a football game on replay, but just clipping out huge chunks of the game just because nobody scores isn’t really my preference. And, again, it’s the middle of the night. What else are you showing?
Q4 4:18 – On a punt return, the Wolfpack runner is brought down by a defender who appears to have reached out and grabbed either the face mask or the side of the helmet, dropping him to the ground practically on his face. It was a pretty ugly tackle right in front of the NC State bench. Head coach Tom O’Brien is understandably hot under the collar over the lack of a penalty flag.
Ooh, but now I’m getting a little irritated with the loud-mouths in the booth.
“Boy, from here, that looked like a face mask.”
My typical response to this sort of comment is, “well, that’s why we don’t officiate from there,” except the replay does seem to indicate this was a miss for the crew.
“He’s got him by the underneath the helmet. That is a face mask. That’s a fifteen yard foul. How do you miss that? If you’re an official out there and you’re in the game and you see a body violently turn like that, there’s no other way it can happen. The ball should be on South Carolina’s 35-yard line right now.”
Okay, I have established that the replay shows this to have been something that would call for a flag. However, how you can ‘miss that’ can be answered a number of ways. First, though, I will say the covering officials will be the first to regret having missed the call once they see the replays because the safety of the players is a primary concern for any official (or so I believe).
Now, this play was a long return of a punt. Such plays have the officials moving pretty well, along with the fact that all 22 players are somewhat scattered all over the field in these situations. Simply put, the officials covering the ball carrier may simply have gottten screened from seeing that part of the play. I can see on the replay that the angle at which the covering official was looking may have put the offending and and offended helmet out of his direct line of sight. I shan’t go too much more into that because I won’t want to seem to be making excuses for the crew. Such a flagrant foul should have been seen, but wasn’t. Nobody is going to like that.
Again, the irresponsibility of the broadcasters is appalling. The know-it-all/second guessing of the officials at work tends to lead to bad behavior from fans and players. There is NO WAY you would want officials to make calls on things they don’t see. If that official didn’t flag the play, it’s surely because he didn’t see it. To extrapolate what he may have seen would be poor officiating and certainly not what anyone would want from officials in general. One must see the entire play to make such a judgment. It’s unfortunate that this was missed, but that is simply going to happen. We all work hard on constantly improving our knowledge and mechanics to assure such things aren’t missed, but things are always going to slip through.
I would also add that you never hear these broadcasters so emotional over mistakes by players or even coaches, but nobody wants to hear that. Just be aware that everyone makes mistakes, but it’s really only the officials, despite executing on a high level a large share of the time, who get berated so strongly for their errors. It comes with the territory. We know this. If we couldn’t handle it, we’d likely not do it. I personally just wish the complainers would train as officials and try it just for a little bit so they have a better frame of reference for their spastic reactions.
Oh but you just can’t stop with the button pushing.
“And we should note, in this game between teams from two separate conferences, these are Southeastern Conference officials on the field tonight, the conference of South Carolina.”
This is beyond irresponsible. Simply put, the implication here would be that the officials may have decided to pass on making that call out of favor of the team from their conference, or am I missing what the possible point of such an urgent ‘note’ might otherwise have been. I’m astounded that such a comment was made and can’t really say anything more about it. In the lingo of our time, ‘it is what it is.’
unbelievable.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard comments from fans that would indicate they believe I am favoring one team or another. I can also not tell you how ludicrous an idea it would seem to me that I would have a reason to want to favor, say, the Bulldogs over the Thunder. It’s absurd. Could it be that they think I’ve somehow managed to wager on the outcome of a game between two teams of 13-year-old kids? It goes beyond reason, but is born in these sorts of flimsy accusations from television broadcasters.
“Not making any suggestion there, but people want to know…”
Is there any way to interpret what he said as ‘not making any suggestion?’ I don’t see it and call ‘nice attempt at CYA.’
Then they continue, with the camera focused squarely and up close on Jayroe, who I assume now to have been the covering official. I’m not going to transcribe the quotes, but it’s more “How do you miss that?” and implications that, even if Jayroe did not actually see the grab of the face mask, he should have somehow known the face mask grab occurred because of the way the runner went to the ground. I really dislike these guys now, maybe even more than Davie and Jones from the Boise game. Maybe I should find their names so they can go on my list, which doesn’t actually exist, but maybe should.
3:36 – Back to action. Stephon Gilmore reaches out and grabs a Wolfpack receiver as he runs by, earning a pass interference call.
The pause in action gives opportunity for the booth personnel to pat one another on the backs while the camera shows that the umpire has blood running down the side of his face.
“You’ve done an awesome job…” blah blah blah.
Don’t tell The Missus about the bloody umpire. She already worries too much about me officiating.
3:28 – Trailing 7-3 late in the game, Jay Smith drops what would have been a catch for a go-ahead score in the end zone.
“That ball has to be caught.”
“Okay, but I’m going to defend Smith for a moment. Look at those arms and hands flying through there. I know you gotta be focused. You gotta catch the ball, I understand.”
Does this sorta illustrate an earlier point? I feel it does. All sorts of compassion and defense of a mistake where there was none just a few minutes prior for the man in the stripes. Granted, from my aspect, the face mask miss is more of a safety concern. The announcers weren’t nearly as concerned about the player as they were about the fifteen yards, so, comparing it to an error costing a team the opportunity to take a late lead…I’m just sayin’.
I’ve taken the time to find information about the broadcasting team. I’m seeing the credited team is Sean McDonough, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Erin Andrews. Andrews is on the sidelines and, hence, is exempt from my disfavor, since she didn’t participate in the nonsense. Admittedly, the whole game sounded, to me, to be covered by just two people. I’ve no idea which was which, so I’m just putting the names here and figuring I can refer to them later if I have better information.
The game ended 7-3 with South Carolina winning. The game had a lot less scoring than the Oregon/Boise State game did, but wasn’t nearly as sloppy. I think this crew, despite the big miss on that face mask and the resulting venom from the broadcast team, had a better game than did the guys in Boise.
