[reddevil19]

This has to be the most bizarre sequence of events in a football game that I have ever witnessed. From my POV (4th level, in End Zone) it sure looked like the guy on the sideline interfered or touched the ball, ever so briefly. With access to a monitor with the ESPN feed during the review process, it was difficult to tell. But, they certainly took long enough with the review that I'd like to think that it the proper call was made.

From a non-official's perspective, it seems to me that maybe the R might have made the UT sideline guy think the ball was dead because he threw his flag instead of the beanbag (of course, the R then announced that there could be no IG penalty on a backwards pass, which makes me think that he initially was going to call an incompletion and a foul for IG, then realized his mistake). Then, the whole enforcement issue got to be somewhat tedious (it was hard to hear the R's microphone explanations tonight). This play will certainly make all the highlight reels for awhile though.

As an aside, during the second quarter, the R and the TV Timeout guy started bickering with each other during stoppages in play after changes of possession. Twice the TV guy was giving the "keep it going" signal and the R was giving him the arms out/palms up, "WTF?" look and gesture. On the second time, the R ran all the way down to my end where the TV guy was and they had a very animated conversation, the R was definitely unhappy with something having to do with not taking the TV timeouts. Very strange.