Matthews vs Kaepernick play
 

I think it's agreed upon that they screwed this play up at least once by replaying 3rd down. Some are saying they screwed it up twice by calling the second foul and offsetting them.

My question - seems to me the Matthews hit was it's own late hit. The follow up was separated, and possibly even enough happened to warrant offsetting USC's AFTER the Matthews hit.

So ... would there be any justification (or justice) in calling the Matthews hit as USC, and additionally calling offsetting USC's during the scrum - and then penalizing only the Matthews hit (should have been 1st and goal then)?

What about at NCAA or NFHS levels?

You cannot call the hit a USC as it involved contact. Now all the other stuff afterwards I would have no problem with some USC calls.

I was not really happy with how the officials handled the scrum afterwards. There were times when no officials were around when players were getting into it with each other.

Peace

Speaking NCAA: There really wouldn't be a way to enforce the DB PF against Green Bay without offsetting it against another dead ball PF / UNS foul.

Although I did hear a story once of a big time college R doing just that by accepting the first foul from a reporting official, announcing it and then accepting another foul from another reporting official and announcing that one.

I don't have enough juice to get away with something like that. :D

I think the UNS against SF was justified (and this is coming from a die hard Niner fan). Yes Matthews ran his mouth before the game and yes he hit Kaepernick late but that doesn't give them license to go running into the scrum and getting into his face.

I also think that maybe Matthews got away with throwing a punch that wasn't seen.

NCAA -- proper enforcement is the same as the NFL. Count the down, cancel the yardage. I don't think we "find" another UNR/UNS here, unless it's...here.

NFHS -- this would be enforced in the order in which they happened. Half-the-distance on the DBPF (UNR) against Matthews, which I believe would've resulted in a first down on the field (no AFD for this PF in NFHS rules). Then move SF back 15 yards and set the chains 1st and 10.

I know, you're asking what if. too many variables in NFHS since all fouls are enforced in the order in which they occur.

What do you think officials should do in such a case?

If you see the video some officials left players behind them or stopped paying attention to them. And they have 7, not 5 or fewer that many of us might have. It was fortunate that the players thought better of it and walked away, but they did so without officials around them or helping the braking up. It is a common mistake we have all made, and NFL officials are not immune to making mistakes.

Peace

Exactly 1 year ago the talking heads on ESPN etc. would be screaming bloody murder about how incompetent these darn replacement officials were.

Why do you care what the media says about any officiating? They have no idea half the time what they are talking about either way.

Peace