I've seen some badly officiated games in my time, but this one takes the cake. This one was bad both ways... They missed at least two blatant defensive holding calls that should have hurt the Aggies. They picked up flags on penalties that should have been called, upheld a ridiculous targeting call, etc... BUT... two stand out above all the others. First... was the fumble "do over" play. LSU has a 3rd and six at midfield. DE Miles Garrett goes around the end, and makes contact with QB as he's throwing... ball skitters forward and an LSU player grabs it. Several refs signal incomplete, one says fumble... and they mark the ball 5 yards ahead. Les can't decide what to do and calls timeout. During that timeout... the replay shows that indeed it was a fumble (which sucked, cuz it gave them a chance to go for it on 4th and very short). BUT... the ref then states that the ball was recovered by an LSU player who was not down... but an inadvertent signal killed the play, so by rule LSU can take a do-over. WHAT THE F*%K???? So they get 3rd over again and make the first down on a quick slant. I need to look up the rules - I thought a ball fumbled forward past the LOS could not be advanced, and therefore was dead when recovered. If that's correct, then the ball was DEAD and any inadvertent signal is irrelevant. Play over, 4th down! They saved the best for last. Aggies down six with 1:30 left and about midfield. 3rd and 8 or so. Before the snap the LSU nose-guard jumps offsides. QB sees free play and heaves it down the field to try for a big play. Ball is batted around, and intercepted. No problem... 3rd and 4 right? Wrong... somehow NO OFFICIAL saw the kid right over the ball jump. They showed the replay about a hundred times... this one was not even close. You want to talk about some venom toward the refs. Aggies are usually pretty good fans when things go bad, but there was some choice stuff floating down after that no-call. There are no guarantees of what would have happened if that call was correctly made, but at least the kids would have had a shot to decide the game themselves. It was a gut-punch to watch it slip away like that...
Scott, This article appears to support your concerns.Mike Pereira levels some pretty harsh criticism of SEC officials. http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/mike-pereira-criticizes-sec-officials/
Time out here.. I want to note that we have Dr Longhorn Terry here saying that the Aggies were screwed by the refs. I think this should be documented. BTW, that was terrible.
I know it. There are two refs looking down the line of scrimmage from opposite sides of the field. How in the hell did both of them miss that call? :roll:
KP, I know, right?! I just want to ask them.. 'look, not questioning your judgment, but exactly what were you two looking at?'