ACC Championship Offside Call

[Suudy]

Originally Posted by scrounge

Yep....it's a fairly simple thing. He missed it. Yea, it's unfortunate but it happened.

My confusion is that this wasn't an error of omission (not seeing something that is there), but error of commission (seeing something that isn't there). When a hold happens, it's easy to say an official "missed" it because he didn't see it. But when a hold doesn't happen, and there's a flag on the ground..? These, I think, are the most frustrating and confusing.

So, the official saw something. I don't know what it is, but he saw something. Like in a hold, the official saw a ball of jersey in a player's hand. Or the sometimes case where you see a player go flying onto his face, and the official turns and assumes that he was pushed in the back. And it wasn't a "miss," at least how I see it. (I know, I know, "miss" is a generic term for not seeing something there and for seeing something not there, but I'm not a fan of the terminology.)

And frankly from the replay, I don't know what he could have seen. Perhaps he thought the kicker's foot was some other player's foot?

Also, the kick was boxed in (like we always do for onside kicks). So there was an official on both sides of the ball. Since the far side official didn't throw a flag, I suspect it had to be a player on the near side. And the closest one is the second from the bottom. Perhaps he saw a hand or finger break the plane at the kick?

Anyway, without a camera looking down the 35 yard line, and no statement forthcoming from the official with the flag, we'll never know what he saw or what he thought he saw.