When Replay Fails

[Warrenkicker]

Originally Posted by BoBo

you watch this video and decide

http://russellarch.com/blah/OREGON.mov

First a disclaimer. I am not an OU or Oregon fan. I really don't usually care who wins the game if it is called properly unless a bad call or two helps Notre Dame to lose.

This video shows two things. First, you can't use the numbers ABC puts on the screen for the actual play clock. The play clock is on the field and whomever is watching it looks to see that it has expired and then sees if the snap has been made. Some conferences are more strict about when the clock has run out than others. The Big XII has normally been a bit more forgiving with the play clock than some other conferences.

Second you can clearly see on replay that the Oklahoma player stepped OOB at the OU 48. The sideline official had his view blocked by a defender at the moment the player stepped OOB. The OU 47 is two yards beyond the line and not three. You can also see from the interesting coloring of the Oregon field that he was running in the first 5 yards of a dark colored area of the field and that there were 10 yards of dark field there. So that means he must not have yet made it to mid-field. ABC even had a great screen shot of the moment he stepped OOB showing the numbers on the field and that it was the OU 48 and not the Oregon 47. So the replay booth was not clear as to where they wanted the ball placed so the officials on the field put it at the OU 47 because they suspected that was the spot requested. Replay gave OU an extra 5 yards.

As for the onside kick, I only saw it once at full speed on an ESPN replay and the instant I saw it I said that someone touched the ball about 7 or 8 yards into the kick. I couldn't tell who had done it but I didn't see any OU players in that area right then. I would like to see another replay but my initial thought was that something wasn't right on that one.