Another Friday Night botch!

[l3will]

I agree with grantsrc, the officials blew it. My comment was not meant to let the officials off the hook. They should have known the rules. That is why this forum is beneficial.

It is better to get things straightened out via this forum than by misapplying a rule in a real game.

The best way to use this forum, I think, is to really read the rule and case book when you find yourself disagreeing with something that you think is wrong.

In my case, it straightened out a misunderstanding I had about forward handing that I think I have had for over 30 years. In my case, I was fortunate enough to NOT have that particular situation occur in any game.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: Most of the time I cringe when I hear someone say, "The officials cost us the game." Typically, the reason is not that simple. But here, it's clear: If the officials had properly ruled, R would have won the game. Because of their error, K won the game. I have never seen such a perfect example of an official's error determining the outcome of a game. Whether R should (could?) have scored more points earlier is immaterial. Without the error, R wins; with the error, K wins.

It's a shame that it came down to that, but hopefully all who have read this post will never make that kind of mistake. Thanks tpaul for bringing it to our collective attention.

[MJT]

I agree Bob M. Unfortunately I can see the same decision being made by a few crews around here. It shouldn't EVER happen, but I bet it would.

As stated by cowboyfan1 the BJ should be the "expert" in the scrimmage kick area, but IMO the R should be the overseer of all knowledge. I guess really every crew needs at least one "rule man" not neccessarily the R.

[PSU213]

I'm guess I'm getting a little tired of hearing what R should have done (stay away from the punt, score more earlier, etc.) to win the game. Yes, 47 some odd minutes (or whatever it was) of game was played and R could have "done more." And yes, it is wrong for officials who are not there to rake that crew "over the coals" for that call.

That having been said, there is not a good excuse for missing this call (even if the crew was 100% correct the rest of the game). I have a lot of trouble saying the officiating crew decided the outcome of a game, but you can't let some mistakes by one team justify mistakes on the officials part. I know it's unfair that perfection is expected, and if this call happened in the second quarter of what ended up a 42-0 game, we don't hear about it, but none of that is a good reason to say "oh well" about an incorrect call that the rest of the crew should have questioned.

[Snake~eyes]

Originally posted by MJT
I agree Bob M. Unfortunately I can see the same decision being made by a few crews around here. It shouldn't EVER happen, but I bet it would.

As stated by cowboyfan1 the BJ should be the "expert" in the scrimmage kick area, but IMO the R should be the overseer of all knowledge. I guess really every crew needs at least one "rule man" not neccessarily the R.

I agree, the BJ should be all over this and should know the kicking game. Wierd stuff can happen, especially on kicks, we need to know when to blow the whistle and when not to, when to throw the flag and when not to and when to throw the beanbag and when not it. Murphy's law applies.

I can't totally blame this on the R, if I was the R I would have asked how they scored. The R should not be looking downfield so he wouldn't have seen the play but...

I really would like to know what the heck the HL and especially the LJ were doing. They should be on this too. At what point they could have a conference to determine the correct call.