Penn State Snowflakes: The Officiating
Now that we’ve won the historic game and the dust has settled… do you think the refs were out to get us today? Sure felt like it to me.
The picked up flag on the punt (worst call all day I think), the ticky tack helmet penalty on Barrett, the lack of holding against Penn State all day long… I’m sure there’s more but those immediately come to mind.
What are your thoughts?
November 11th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
I thought they were pretty neutral TBH.
November 11th, 2023 at 5:12 PM ^
The PI on Johnson was nonsense. Kept a scoring drive going.
The interception was a catch. Kept a scoring drive going.
Holding on almost every 1st down play by PSU, zero called.
Zero Michigan drives kept alive by a penalty.
It's not about how many penalties are called, it's about WHEN they're called.
I know it feels good to win, very good in this game in particular, but this was an obvious screw job. Michigan was too good.
November 11th, 2023 at 5:43 PM ^
Give me some of what you’re smoking
November 11th, 2023 at 5:51 PM ^
It's called reality.
November 11th, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
The interception was a catch. Kept a scoring drive going.
No it hit the ground
November 11th, 2023 at 3:57 PM ^
Completely agree, that game wasn't hardly as close as the final score indicated.
PSU had a ref aided TD at the end of both halves, so terrible.
So much holding on PSU not called, it was infuriating yet we still essentially dominated and won!!!
November 11th, 2023 at 4:22 PM ^
Feeling a little relieved that we’re in the minority but yep, I do think the refs were about a 10 point swing in this game.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:41 PM ^
I didn't think it was that uneven. I was fearing much worse actually. The personal foul call on Goode which aided the 2nd TD was a legit call. There were a couple holds on us they could have called, but didn't.
November 11th, 2023 at 6:32 PM ^
Olu Fashanu was bear-hugging Braiden McGregor right next to Cam Goode. Joel Klatt even called it out, expecting that to be the penalty flag. That should have been offsetting.
November 11th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^
It looked like it was going to be bad in the beginning. Then it went bad for psu for the middle and swung against us in the end. Seemed close to even overall.
November 11th, 2023 at 3:57 PM ^
Wish Fox would have shown a replay on the punt. Barrett call was probably legit.
Reffing seemed pretty even to me.
November 12th, 2023 at 2:00 AM ^
Would have to see another angle but honestly I guess I can see what they meant. The guy in the middle of the wedge pushes the PSU player as he's diving so maybe he wouldn't have made contact otherwise. Still, diving through the wedge is reckless enough that it should have been called anyway.
November 11th, 2023 at 3:59 PM ^
i strongly disagree. the refs called a good game. could argue about a few calls, I suppose. but over all refs called a good game
November 11th, 2023 at 9:30 PM ^
It always looked like their intent was to be fair.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:02 PM ^
They were swallowing most of the holding penalties for both teams. I thought the call on the punt was weak, yet they kept the flag in the pocket on Cornelius Johnson's grab on the run block and Mason Graham getting tackled on the QB draw touchdown by Alar. All in all, seemed pretty even.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:02 PM ^
I thought a lot of calls early went against Michigan, but as the game progressed, things evened out. All in all, I thought the refs did pretty well. Before the game, I said to my brother-in-law that I was worried about the ref-ing, but as the game went on, I rescinded my concern.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
Yeah, it wasn't perfect, but overall I thought it was pretty even. A few calls definitely helped a couple of their drives, but at least one uncalled hold helped us
November 11th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
PI on Johnson was suspect. Corum got hit a yard out of bounds, should have been 15. Scored anyway. Graham held on the TD.
Got away with a hold on CJ, the hold called on PSU on the punt return was pretty phantom.
It evened out. No complaints.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:23 PM ^
50-50ish calls that went UM’s way:
the holding on Johnson that was called out. IMO that was not a hold. DB jumped outside to contain then tried to come back inside to follow the runner.
one potential late hit in PSUs punt return that got called back for holding.
the holding call on the same punt return
The illegal formation call seemed wrong, but was declined anyway.
The other way, I had 7 in the first half. Probably can’t remember them all now.
PI on UM. Receiver turned himself
2 possible late hits
holding on the Allar TD run
The spot on the QB sneak to give first down at the ~7
PSU’s longest run was opened by a holding against…Moore? In the backfield
Missed roughing the kicker as others mentioned
2nd half, some blatant holding on their All-American left tackle. One play in particular vs McGregor
I Ageed with the replay overturn, but nothing moved as the ball hit the ground. Could have been a call stands
The offside on Harrell looked suspect.
Overall, slanted but not egregious. (And being an acknowledged homer, that’s not bad)
November 11th, 2023 at 4:23 PM ^
I thought they were surprisingly solid.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:35 PM ^
They did everything they could to keep PSU in this game like the B1G told them too.
Then it became clear even the refs couldn't keep them in the game and they threw some "balance" flags.
November 11th, 2023 at 4:45 PM ^
Kind of felt that way to me too but I didn’t want to go full tin foil hat 😂
November 11th, 2023 at 6:02 PM ^
Don't take this the wrong way, but are you twelve?
November 11th, 2023 at 4:36 PM ^
Kicker call was bad; other than that seemed okay-ish
November 11th, 2023 at 4:50 PM ^
He damn near took the guys helmet off on the hands to the face call. I thought that was an easy call there
November 11th, 2023 at 5:08 PM ^
The refs were unbiased.
Missed a bunch of holding calls (as usual) from both teams.
IMO we got some calls, and we got a couple of bad calls against us. Overall, refs didn't affect the outcome in any way.
I'd much rather have a game with too few penalties called than too many.
And we kicked PSU ass!
Go Blue!
November 11th, 2023 at 5:09 PM ^
Outside of some missed holds (and one of those was definitely a missed hold on Michigan), and the picked up running into the punter (still annoyed we never saw a replay on that), they weren't awful. Which was surprising.
November 11th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
I had it 8 against and 2 for. I suppose that’s the best you can hope for in a situation like today. It wasn’t like past screw jobs that were 20-25 calls against us. If you think I’m exaggerating, just review the 2016 OSU UFRs, or one of the really sketchy MSU games. I can’t remember which year that one was.
November 11th, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
I didn't see anything egregious penalties against us not called, but I'm not good at that. I thought all the penalties called against us were penalties, and the interception was no good. I thought the call against PSU on the punt return was iffy. At worst, I thought it was neutral enough, certainly not home cookin'.
November 11th, 2023 at 5:50 PM ^
The missed hold on the 4th and 6 TD run for Penn State was a big miss, as it really put PSU in the game. Without that call? The final score may have been quite lopsided.
That said, I thought we got a gift PI later on (but we failed to do anything with it).
At the end of the day, Michigan was penalized 6 times for 50 yards, and PSU had 5 penalties for 33. If you remove the 15-yard personal foul call against us for removing a helmet -- which is 100% legit, and on us -- it's basically almost dead even.
So, I have very little complaints, really.
November 11th, 2023 at 7:43 PM ^
I thought it was okay. Didn’t see any blatant screw jobs.