3 Plays

[UmpJM]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your commentary.

I was filming the game for the team in the white jerseys (who were visitors) & was up in the "tower" with 3 adults from the team in the blue jerseys.

The three plays in the clip occurred in the 4th quarter, with the defense ahead 50-0 and the game being played under the "running clock" provision, and the visitors starting backfield had not played a single down in the 2nd half. The home team scored a touchdown shortly after the 3rd play in the clip.

Other than the 3 plays shown, the officiating seemed quite godd to me throughout the game.

The adults from the home team seemed to share my opinion that the calls on the 3 plays shown in the clip were not especially good calls.

On the "defensive offsides" call, there was no action outside of the camera view that could have related to the call.

At the time I was filming, I initially thought that the "late hit"/USC flag had been thrown on Blue #16 and I thought it was a pretty "nit-picky" call. I was quite surprised whent thre referee indicated that the penalty was on the defense. In terms of "history", there had been two previous late hit/USC calls in the game, both against Blue and both quite obvious & blatant.

I would agree that the camera view is a little "long" on the DPI call to say anything definitive, but it appeared to me AND the blue team supporters that it looked like "nothing".

I came away with the impression that the officials "wanted" the blue team to score. Again, other than those three plays, both before and after, the officiating seemed quite good to me. There had been a more or less equal number of flags thrown against each team, all of which were supported by the action documented on the video.

Thanks to all who chose to comment. I was just looking for some objective opinions on the calls to see whether my view was completely biased.

JM