ndfan, After Allen scored the TD he raised his index finger to his mouth and gave the Shhhh sign, and a flag flew. Tough call, like several tough calls and non-calls during the game, but as I understand the rule, it's individual hotdogging that isn't allowed. Team "enthusiasm" celebrations are OK. The ref obviously interpreted Allen's gesture as hotdogging.
When we play every other conference team we use Big East refs in their stadium.....except for one team...Michigan. They insist that they get their refs in their stadium. It's happened numerous times in the Big House. It wasn't 1 call, it wasn't one call and a replay it was a number of instances including non calls that should have been made. And one of my favorites (this has happened to us before there) after a late game TD an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the following kickoff. Back in '77 we had a team that was to go on and finish first in the polls after the bowls. We lost to a Miss. team that won maybe 3 games all year. The reason was over a dozen ******** penalties. We've never scheduled them again. I'm ready to put this series in the bin. They talked about ending it a few years ago but may have thought that it wouldn't looke good if the proposed ending it. Looks to me as though they're trying to get ND to end it.
The celebration penalty.... That moment reminded me a whole lot of the 1999 game. (I think that was the year, I could be mistaken) In that game, it was a physical back and forth contest that featured an uncountable amount of celebrations, taunts and 'should be' penalties... but I believe it was Bobby Brown who made a gesture as he scored late in the 4th to put the Irish ahead and was penalized. That same gesture had been made by a M player earlier in the game and went uncalled. As AA raced to the endzone, I wasn't celebrating... I knew that turf monster aside, he was going in. Like a lot of Charlie's plays, you can see it develop fast and where it should go. That play was going to the end zone the moment Jimmy put the ball in his left hand.. I literally shouted at the television 'dont celebrate, dont celebrate, dont celebrate' and as soon as he put that finger up I replaced my screams for calm with some profane vulgarities. He couldn't help himself. He had to have known better. Anyone who knows this series should know better. I had told my boss and everyone who would listen that strange things happen to us in Ann Arbor and I don't care how good we look.. So just as it had years before, a late celebration penalty cost us big...Although there are countless examples that could have been called before (the most egregious being the shoving of Floyd back down to the ground as he handed the ball to the ref, that took place at the feet of the ref), it is still something you are in control of and AA didn't do it. Still, if Tate holds onto half the balls he drops then we win the game. That is really the bottom line here. We had this game and let it slip through our fingers in a number of ways. We held it in our hands and we dropped it.
Corey You really think that after all those ******** calls that there were ever going to let us win that game?
Interesting article on the game. Lou Somogyi Michigan State becomes Chariles biggest game of the year, he can not afford to go 1-2, the hot seat will become not just red hot, but white hot. Lou compares it to Faust and Davies last year.
SportingNewsToday, an internet publication, refers to ND as "underrated" with the following comment: I take issue with Somogyi's opinion and place him in the ever growing group of chicken littles (The sky is falling! The sky is falling!). I was there for the Faust era. This team and coach bear no resemblance whatsoever to that coach or those teams. It's a ridiculous comparison and completely disrespects Michigan's performance as a factor in the loss. Our issue is our defense, and I understand that in the end it falls on the shoulders of the head coach. If we don't have a successful season by ND standards in Weis' 5th year, he should go. But to compare this team with Faust-coached teams shows a lack of understanding of the game and nothing more than an effort to pander to the currently most vocal element of ND fandom.
Gip, I understand what you are saying, at the same time, we left some doors open that we controlled. Any time you do that, you got no one but yourselves to blame. Sid, I agree. These teams are nothing like the Faust years. Anyone making that claim is just hysterical or pandering to a market that they have been missing out on. Either way, it's cheap and inaccurate.
Allen's foot on the out of bounds call to negate the TD. This call and the 'Shhh' call were the two that really got to me. I don't think this is "indisputable" evidence and gimme a break a player puts his finger to his facemask to "shush" the crowd and that's unsportsmanlike. I hate that unsportsmanlike penalty, I see it every weekend enforced unevenly and sometimes IMHO capriously.
ND/mich <r>It's a if ND got it's first 2 games turned around. The first game they come out and play relatively mistake free ball as if they had already played 4 or 5 games. Their 2nd game they come out and look like the first game of the season which is normally where most teams have their largest number of mistakes. <E>:?</E></r>
Terry, thanks for posting that picture...it looks pretty clearly OB to me. I posted on the Purdue list that while I was watching the game I was very surprised that they reversed the call...nothing they showed looked indisputable to me...but I was not watching in HD and I assume that in the booth they have HD and the capability of zooming in, etc. I am still on probation after this weekend (Bucks, Boilers, Browns)...the wife is not allowing me to go near any sharp objects.
Let's not forget the holding penalty on Young. Replays clearly showed that the defensive player had been knocked off balance by the tight end and Young just finished pancaking him. That play alone cost 80 yds. Great day at work today here in Michigan. Yes sir, those Michigan fans who for years have been whining about the phantom TDs in the Rose Bowl, the trip on the 2 pt. conversion vs MSU, the slow clock at MSU, and my favorite "the wind stopped" for Oliver's fg, all thought that the officiating was pretty fair.
The replay officals don't have HD with Zoom. The annoucers kept saying that they see exactly what we were seeing on TV, and on TV at least to me it did not look like "indisputable" evidence. But then I guess it's like that old Clinton deal about the meaning of "is". Terry
NewsCenter 16 has learned that officials of the Big East did not think the touchdown pass from Jimmy Clausen to Armando Allen in the first quarter of Saturday's game should have been overturned. The Big 10 officiating crew ruled that Allen did not step on the sideline but a request by Michigan to have the play reviewed resulted in no touchdown. ND settled fior a field goal in the 38-34 loss. Notre Dame uses Big East officials so that is why that conference reviews the video sent by the Irish football office for grading. It will be a Big 10 crew on Saturday when the 1-1 Irish host Michigan State
ND <r>Combine that evidence with the game stats and it's easy to see the best team lost!<br/> <br/> THE HELL WITH MICHIGAN! <E>:?</E> <E></E></r>
Sorry guys, I just don't see any green between the Big toe and the sideline. Not to sound like Cochran, but....If it's white, he musta been right!!
So that means that the line judge who was standing just a few yards away blew that call too? Well if he can't get that right what else did he "miss" during the game?
A very close call was missed...it looks to me like it was properly reversed...not my fault. And I can only imagine the conversation if it had been a UM TD...was not reversed...and then that picture was posted.