Apparently Washington was robbed versus BYU.
If you caught any series of college football highlights yesterday you saw the end of the BYU-Washington game in which Washington scored a TD with two seconds left but was then forced to kick the extra point from 35 yards due to QB Jake Locker being flagged for excessive celebration. Locker, after running into the end zone exuberantly threw the ball straight up into the air which is prohibited. The refs threw the flag and backed the Huskies up to the 17. BYU was able to block the PAT and win the game setting off a media wringing of hands over the call.
The general sense out there is the refs blew the call. Lou Holtz and Mark May on ESPN along with other commentators argued Locker was not doing something unsportsmanlike but merely caught up in the moment and should not have been flagged. In fact May went as far as to flat out lie about the nature of Locker tossing the ball into the air saying he merely flipped it over his shoulder. This was not the case and the officials, using the standard set forth in the rulebook, properly applied the rule. The Wizard of Odds, who has video of the incident, says it was the right call but the rule takes the fun out of the game and should be changed. I think they should apply these things on the kickoff. That debate is for another time however.
The main issue for me here is the media’s penchant for demanding nuance in officiating during end of game situations. For example if this had happened in the 1st quarter I doubt as much would have been made of it even if final score ended up being the same. Because this happened on the final play of the game and the call set up a long PAT which was blocked, it is asserted the referees were not being fair. Now if there is one consistent position I maintain here at THF it is that referees do not cost teams games, players failing to make plays do. This is no different. Washington should have made the PAT anyway or made some other play earlier in the game to give themselves a better chance to win. The controversy also seems to miss the fact that even with the PAT the game is still heading to OT where who knows what might have happened. This does not stop the media from getting their panties in a wad over what is the proper enforcement of the rule in hand. You can certain argue, as The Wiz does, the rule is bad and should be changed. However, the idea that officials on the field should make conscience efforts to bend the rule because of the situation is laughable. And beyond that, one commentator implied that the call might end up costing Ty Willingham his job at Washington which again is not the concern of the referee nor should it be.
The whole thing reminds me of Billy Packer’s assertion in the NCAA Championship game between Memphis and Kansas that the officials did a “great job” not dropping a technical foul on a Memphis player for slamming the basketball to the floor and having it bounce over his head late in the game. Packer’s belief was the referee should exercise judgment during end of game situations as to avoid the referees deciding the game. A similar logic is at work here in the media’s outrage and it is comical that people say the refs should not decide the game when clear violations occur. In the eyes of the exalted experts, the referee is required to substitute his judgment for the rulebook when any rule is broken during the waning moments of a close game. Nice to know. Perhaps we should always make this the case so we can have even more inconsistent officiating than we are getting right now. That should work well.
Jake Locker made a mistake and in his exuberance he did something the rule forbids. It is no different than a player jumping offsides or in the heat of the moment pusing an opposing player. The fact it happened at the end of the game does not mean it should be enforced less than at the beginning. Exit question: The assertion is that a referee making a call like this is “deciding the game” instead of the players so if he chooses to exercise judgement in place of the rulebook isn’t he doing the same thing?
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Terrible rule. Good analysis. Can’t wait for Thursday.
I don’t know whether it’s a bad rule or a good rule. The NCAA has chosen to limit team and individual celebrations and has written rules the officials are required to know and enforce. Had the officiating crew “picked up the flag” they would have certainly been subject to discipline – possibly suspension – by the NCAA.
The easiest way to have avoided the situation would have been for the guy who scored the TD to drop the ball in the end zone or toss it to one of the officials.
As far as the PAT being from 35 yards, Sam Swank surely didn’t have any trouble booting a 41-yard FG in the final seconds from the right hash mark to beat Ole Miss by two.
If Washington’s o-line can’t block for a routine 35 yard PK and the kicker can’t kick it over from there, they deserve to lose.
And then, as THF said, had Washington made the PAT they still had to go to OT to win or lose.
I think Billy Packer is right here. When infractions take place at the margin, particularly in close games, it is better to choose the option that interferes least with the outcome. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t good arguments both ways, and we can see that the harsh ruling against Washington is likely to send a message to all the other players who might be tempted to toss the ball after scoring. The notion that a 35 yard field goal is no more difficult than a 20 yard field goal is simply not true, however, nor is the notion that “officials are required to enforce” the rule.
Officials look the other way at scores of possible rule violations in every sport and are in no way obliged to enforce every single potential contextual violation. We see mini-scraps among football players in virtually every game played and obviously the officials do not issue penalties for fighting each time. Good officiating requires knowledge of the rules and the common sense to apply them correctly. I doubt that occurred in the Washington-BYU game.
Good thread THF. William, that was insightful analysis you have articulated in your post. I must admit, I am surprised that what you have said is actually the position you take on this subject.
Can the words “I think Billy Packer is right…” be used on this site? I don’t think there is any reason to say that Billy Packer is right about anything unless he says something about being the worst commentator of all time.
Bad rule. Call was within the rules. What gets on my nerves is the implication that this was a game changing call. Washington still could’ve made that PAT, but no, they couldn’t block BYU and instead BYU blocked their attempt at a tie. Players win and lose games, not referees.
You have to remember the probabilities. College kickers lag pro kickers, even when kicking with tees. Your average college kicker probably makes about 95% of his PAT’s from the normal distance of 20 yards, but probably makes only about 67% of field goal attempts from 35 yards. Of course, the kicker could have made it; he also could have possibly made a 63 yarder like Tom Dempsey, but there is no doubt that the penalty made the kick much tougher.
I think I will second Wilson’s comment.
Wilson nailed it.
Says william; “it is better to choose the option that interferes least with the outcome”;
I think NOT making the call interferes with the outcome. If it was offsides no one would have suggested the call not be made.
But again, it’s a sucky rule IMO.
The issue I have here is the media wringing hands over the call because it happened at the end of the game. If it happens in the 1st quarter it might come up in passing or be discussed during the broadcast as a bad rule or a bad call but not trumpeted as a lead on college football halftime shows as some egregious error by the referee. The official followed the letter of the rule. There are so many gray area calls out there that get griped about and here they are griping about something of which there was no ambiguity. The rule probably should be changed or at the very least do not allow penalties like this to interfere with the PAT and enforce it on the kickoff instead.
You make an interesting point, THF, and I don’t know if there should be a difference in perception. I believe most fans and coaches think there is a certain slack in a game to the extent that bad or unnecessary calls can be made up for if they occur early enough in the game. Is it true?
Ask yourself this. Why does a team down 8 points with 3 minutes to play in the second half of a college basketball game resort to a number of tactics to try to milk the clock so that they can attempt to come back and yet, the same team trailing by 8 points with 3 minutes to go in the FIRST HALF pretty much happily lets the clock run out, thinking, “we’ll get them in the second half.”
The other thing that people should be clear on is that we are talking about contextual fouls or penalties that do not give a team an advantage in play or threaten to injure another player. Obviously, offsides not called give a team an advantage, as do illegal procedures and most other penalties in football. Late hits and facemask penalties are dangerous.
Excessive cheering and penalties for swearing, however, are of a different category.
Nice analysis, THF. I live within 10 blocks of Husky stadium and you could hear the collective groan from the blocked kick across town. The rule is a lame one, but just another example of the NCAA areas of emphasis that get relaxed after they’re taken too far. And you’e right, the media got much too hyped over a BYU-UW game that was of no national significance.
Well, william does make a great point in that this penalty was for something that didn’t give either team an advantage. I must reconsider what I wrote earlier……
but not the part about the rule being sucky..