Officiating

Submitted by umfan on

I don't know if anyone else noticed this but the officiating, especially in the first half was TERRIBLE there were like 5 pass interferences. a TD call blown. On one of the interference calls even the uber-biased commentators thought was a bad call against Michigan. There were plenty of no-calls that helped ND slip by. I bet the refs are from the S-Bend area.

goody

September 14th, 2008 at 10:57 AM ^

Notre Dame seemed to get a lot of calls but they seemed to even out later in the game. No excuse, hold onto the ball and Michigan wins, refs or not.

Magnus

September 14th, 2008 at 11:07 AM ^

The NUMBER of calls started to even out, but not the shitty quality of them.  That pass interference play negated a huge play, and the TD to Mathews was a bad call, too.  That's potentially a 14-point swing right there.  If Michigan had stopped ND due to that nice play by Warren and if that TD catch had been ruled correctly, the score is 24-28 and we're only one score down.  Those calls aren't the entire reason we lost, obviously, but it would have been a drastically different game.

spartyNO

September 14th, 2008 at 11:04 AM ^

Trent's PI in the end zone was pretty questionable.  Warren's was bullshit, that was a legitimate breakup.  Mathews had a TD; the ball bounced when it hit the turf but it looked like he had possession. 

With 6 turnovers, it really doesn't matter anyway.

Magnus

September 14th, 2008 at 11:09 AM ^

Nah, that was a good call.  It was definitely pass interference.  Of course, the homer NBC commentators said Warren pushed the guy "2 or 3 yards" out of the way, which wasn't the case.  But really, I don't think the ball was catchable.  I would have been okay with a non-call, but it wasn't bullshit.

chitownblue (not verified)

September 14th, 2008 at 11:21 AM ^

The ball was obviously catchable - if you argue that Warren "barely" pushed him, and Warren caught the ball with a foot down in the endzone, isnt the ball by definition "catchable"?

As far as the other calls - Warren's PI on the pass before the bomb was, indeed, BS. Matthews' catch - I'd tend to think that the replay wasn't ver conclusive - however it was called on the field was how it was going to stand.

A question, though - on Grady's fumble, Matthews had recovered, and seemed to be lying on the ball, both knees down. Then, a ND player ran over and punched the ball out - couldn't Matthews have been called down there?

Magnus

September 14th, 2008 at 11:39 AM ^

The ball looked uncatchable to the tight end (I think it was Kyle Rudolph).  Warren had a shot to catch it because he was standing behind Rudolph while still inbounds.  For Rudolph to catch it, he would have had to have jumped backwards, through Warren, and somehow kept a foot inbounds.  By the way, Warren did NOT land with a foot inbounds; the entirety of his foot was on the white; it wasn't even close.  And Mathews never had possession of the fumble.  Yes, he landed on it, but he never had it on his arms - he just kind of rolled over it and it squirted out from underneath him.

TMos53

September 14th, 2008 at 11:44 AM ^

You would think, wouldn't you? I agree with the post somewhat. Early on, the biased refing was easy to see. When Trent was called for PI in the endzone, he and the WR were fighting and pushing each other, you shouldn't call it when both are wrestling around like that. Mathew's catch was obviously a TD, when you have a hand under it, that means that it's a catch. Grady's fumble shouldn't have been called forward progress and even if it wasn't, Mathew's had possesion of the ball with his knees on the ground. Eventually, however, it was the fumbles that got the best of us. Take away a couple of boneheaded plays and they don't even score 3 TD's. Punch in those 2 redzone trips for a TD and then they would have had less opportunity to score. This is all what if's, though, ND didn't beat Michigan yesterday, Michigan beat Michigan. Also, I wanted to make a point, the refs were from the Big East. Very interesting considering ND, with the exception of hockey and football, is in the Big East AND let's not forget about the fact that West Virginia is in the Big East and where did our new coach come from? I'm not saying WV had anything to do with anything, I'm just saying...

BigHouseInFLA

September 14th, 2008 at 12:06 PM ^

You should write the script to National Treasure 3....haha...that conspiracy theory makes you think though....oh and i think they fished charlie weis out of the atlantic during mating season.....and where's the atlantic? the big east!

sedieso

September 14th, 2008 at 12:25 PM ^

it was a big east officiating crew. the first PI on warren was bs, but thats no excuse for us getting burned on the next play. the trent PI was meh but it seemed as if he was holding on to him and he was beat by his man. the warren in the back of the end zone i think was a stupid play on warrens part

Michael

September 14th, 2008 at 2:08 PM ^

I think the impact of the "iffy" calls early in the game was quite significant. When our guys make a good play, particularly on defense, and it turns out to be a PI call, they are forced to play less agressively because they're afraid of getting flagged.

I for one believe that Warren had a pretty good day, despite all that was going against him. That flag in the back of the end zone SHOULD have been a no call because 1) the ball was not catchable by the ND reciever, and 2) while Warren did put his hands on the guy, it was so lightly that the guy didn't even move! All of this was while Warren was making a play on a ball that Clausen was TRYING TO THROW OUT OF THE BACK OF THE ENDZONE!

The intent of the pass interference penalty is to ensure that both players have a fair opportunity to make a play on the ball. It pisses me off when we play good defense and the other team gets rewarded for our effort.

sca1zi

September 14th, 2008 at 5:35 PM ^

1. The first call on Warren was BS.

2. The Matthews TD is excusable. If the ref would have called it a catch, it would have stood. I can't complain too much about that.

3. The 2nd PI call on Warren is tenuous at best. he ND player would have had to jump backwards out of the end zone to have been anywhere near the ball.

4. No one has mentioned the BS chop block call.
all of this matters not, really. 4 fumbles I cannot explain away. There were some horrendous calls though.

mjv

September 15th, 2008 at 12:27 AM ^

At first I thought that the Trent PI was a case of two guys fighting, but I Tivo'd it and it was pretty clear that only trent had his hands on the other player.  Legit Call.

The Matthews TD, I think that he caught it, but the replay wasn't enough to over turn the call either way.

The first Warren PI down the right side line was absolute crap.  Even the homer announcers agreed.

The Warren PI in the back of the endzone I thought was crap at first, but with the replay, that ball was possibly catchable (highly unlikely, but not impossible).  Its always seemed that the have the PI overrulled by uncatchable, it seems to need to be beyond a doubt.

Hannibal.

September 16th, 2008 at 4:10 PM ^

The first PI on Warren didn't matter, since ND scored a long TD on the next play anyways, and that would have been a TD from 99 yards.

The second PI on Warren was a legit call and a terrible play by Warren.  The ball would have been nearly impossible to catch anyways, although not uncatchable enough to pick up the flag (that is really rare).  All Warren has to do is jump for the ball instead of pushing the recevier and it's incomplete.

 The Matthews call was really borderline and next to impossible to make out at full speed.  Tough to overturn on review either.

 The call that I thought was inexcusable was the one where McGuffie almost gets his neck broken by a facemask, and the ref who is a few yards away doesn't even throw the flag!!