It was a terrible decision to go after that punt. Just started the 3rd quarter and got a 3-and-out and will get the ball with good field position and you decide to go after the punt? I usually don't complain about officiating but the 4th and 2 chop block on Fisher was so obvious. That was the ballgame right there. And then the hold on Jewell on the TD was obvious as well. #75 grabbed him and tackled him for God's sake. And it was right in front of the ball carrier. How could officials not see or call that one?
I'm actually going to take the time to do this, but referees had a penchant for swallowing their whistles when it came to opponent's O-lines holding our defensive rushers. We probably had to have the least amount of holding penalties called against teams we faced of any team in the Big Ten (like I said, I'm going to actually check this out).
And there's a reason I'm so adamant about this. I understand there's the phony notion that refs could "
call holding on every play if they wanted"...but I'm talking about refs missing pretty blatant holds time and time again, and by blatant I mean
one on one blocks in open space (think of OT vs DE away from the interior pile of bodies), where officials should be able to see that and not just watch the play (which happens way too much IMHO, or if we're talking about the NFL, they're watching the play way too much to anticipate a flag, as evident by the rash of horrible calls in recent weeks, including some game-deciding calls). Those kind of calls are still being missed with enough frequency to certainly make you scratch your head and wonder what exactly constitutes holding, if not that, and how much (especially in games like yesterday) are the refs gonna let go because of some misguided notion requiring them to "
let the players play".
And there's nothing wrong with that, but there's a reason we have rules, and looking the other way on certain plays when violations actually do in fact occur devalues the purpose for having such rules in the first place, and in fact encourages teams to push the limit of what officials are willing to let go in certain situations, more and more. It's basically the Michigan State/Louisville basketball approach, although in the case of the hold/chop block at the end of the game, it would be more akin to officials swallowing their whistles on the final shot of a bball game where the shooter gets hammered and nothing is called, because after all................gotta f***ing let the players make plays at the end of the game.
That's my sour grapes.
That and Josey Jewell had the angle to stuff the 4th and 2 play and missed it......unfortunately.
