"Every Play Is Reviewed"
That's what we're told almost every time a play is reviewed in college football. "Every play is reviewed." In the time it took the officials to spot the ball and wind the clock, ESPN had already put on screen conclusive video evidence that Obi Ezeh had possession of the ball and was down.
Some people may say "yeah, but it was a gritty, hustle play by the Minnesota player to get down there and dig the ball out of the pile. That's football." To that, I'd say when a player has possession of the football and a knee, elbow, or hip hit the ground, the play is dead. It's a simple if A then B. We had a situation A, but it was not followed by B.
I don't blame the officials on the field. It's a tough situation to call. It happens really quickly and it's hard to get a good angle in a scrum like that. But that's why we have instant replay. And Rodriguez shouldn't have to call a timeout to give them time to do what ESPN did in 10 seconds. Rodriguez shouldn't have to challenge since every play is reviewed.
What do you think was going up in the booth? The replay official was watching the game in real time on his uber-high def monitors and from that decided there was nothing the least bit questionable? I'm in favor of replays happening when the call questionable, not just when the official thinks he (or she) sees incontrovertible visual evidence. I'd rather break the flow of the game in order to ensure the correct call is made.
Some people may say "yeah, but it was a gritty, hustle play by the Minnesota player to get down there and dig the ball out of the pile. That's football." To that, I'd say when a player has possession of the football and a knee, elbow, or hip hit the ground, the play is dead. It's a simple if A then B. We had a situation A, but it was not followed by B.
I don't blame the officials on the field. It's a tough situation to call. It happens really quickly and it's hard to get a good angle in a scrum like that. But that's why we have instant replay. And Rodriguez shouldn't have to call a timeout to give them time to do what ESPN did in 10 seconds. Rodriguez shouldn't have to challenge since every play is reviewed.
What do you think was going up in the booth? The replay official was watching the game in real time on his uber-high def monitors and from that decided there was nothing the least bit questionable? I'm in favor of replays happening when the call questionable, not just when the official thinks he (or she) sees incontrovertible visual evidence. I'd rather break the flow of the game in order to ensure the correct call is made.
The player will show in this paragraph
This play didn't really affect the outcome of the game, but it still gets me. I think even if I was watching a game that I had no interest in, I still would have been a bit angry. I don't blame the officials on the field; they did as well as they could in a difficult situation. The blame falls squarely on the replay official for not even calling for a replay.Labels: football, I posted, minnesota, video
This entry was posted by Paul, on
Monday, November 10, 2008.
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11/10/2008 11:33:00 AM
I don't think recovery of a fumble is reviewable, which is probably why they didn't stop the play. Michigan obviously did get screwed there, but under the current rules I don't think there's anything that could have been done.
11/10/2008 11:44:00 AM
The recovery of a fumble is most certainly a reviewable play.
11/10/2008 11:48:00 AM
I cant imagine why that play would be non-reviewable, but I dont know... Anyway, the Big Ten booth boobs have proven themselves just that already (see Minor TD vs MSU), that one went for us, this one against. I thought the fumble was pretty obviously covered by Ezeh, and I have to somewhat disagree that the refs on the field should have seen that.
Thankfully neither of the plays determined the outcome of the game...
11/10/2008 11:51:00 AM
Thankfully neither of the plays determined the outcome of the game, but the fact that a bad call went against the team that ultimately won does not excuse the fact that there was a bad call in the first place.
11/10/2008 11:52:00 AM
While I was pissed that the play wasn't reviewed, I was even more pissed at Ezeh for letting a WR come in and rip the ball away.
11/10/2008 01:01:00 PM
you know what the funniest part of it was? the announcer saying, "it looks like brandon graham recovered that one" then i look up and see BG is STANDING OUTSIDE OF THE PILE LOOKING AT IT. does the announcer notice his mistake and correct himself? of course not
11/10/2008 01:48:00 PM
This proves (again) that mistakes happen with or without replay review. The reviews just slow down the game and are, in general, a waste of everyone's time.
11/10/2008 01:48:00 PM
Why can't the officials on the field call for a review? This seems obvious to me. They are instructed to call the game to allow for reviews, yet are at the mercy of the coaches and the replay officials to review their calls. Here is a situation where a ref should be able to say, "I thought I saw Michigan recover that, but I couldn't be sure he had control, and Minnesota came out of the pile with the ball. Let's take a look."
11/10/2008 02:24:00 PM
Obes: watch it again. Turn your speakers up and listen starting at the 0:26 mark. He says, "excuse me, Obi Ezeh". And then again at the very end, he says "Obi has it"
11/10/2008 02:52:00 PM
that was about close to the first play i saw on tv due to prior commitment and it was obvious to this viewer in real time that obi had recovered. how EVERY official plus the booth can miss it is quite unbelievable until one realizes that these are big ten refs and hence incapable of getting more than 50% of the calls right.
11/11/2008 06:18:00 PM
The whole "every play is reviewed" mantra is complete BS and has been since day one. Time and again you see coaches burng time-outs in hopes of getting a review that supposedly is being done on every play. The NCAA should go to the NFL system of challenges, at least with that method a missed review is on the coaches. The fact that when plays are reviewed they are horribly judged just exacerbates the problem. The Minor TD this year is just the most recent example.
11/11/2008 08:40:00 PM
The NFL system of challenges is crap. End of story.