I almost went somewhere I never go.
The standing THF policy concerning officiating is that you cannot blame the referees for a loss. Had UNC lost to Notre Dame on Saturday I would have openly blamed the officials for it. The blown call on Brooks Foster’s 3rd down catch giving UNC what was likely the game sealing first down nearly gave birth to a Notre Dame game winning touchdown. This is a rare situation where you can point to one missed call by the officials as the fault for potentially losing game. Yes, UNC stopped Notre Dame and had the opportunity to stop them but it should have gone there. Cam Sexton should have been taking knees down on the Notre Dame end of the field running the clock out instead of watching in horror along with every other Heels fan within sight of the game as Notre Dame came close to winning the game. Let’s take a look at how the abomination unfolded.
With two minutes left in the game UNC faced a 3rd down just across midfield leading 29-24. Notre Dame had one timeout left so a UNC first down would have likely ended the game. UNC got with the gutsy pass play call and Sexton executes it perfectly in rolling out of the pocket to find Brooks Foster down field who catches the football then goes down with his foot, his elbow, body and knee clearly touching the ground. As Foster rolled over the ball popped out. The rule on the field as completion and first down. The play is subsequently review in what the ABC announcers say will be a quick review to confirm the call on the field. After several minutes it becomes clear the Big East replay officials are convinced the call on the field is wrong since they are taking forever to render a decision. When they finally did, it was ruled an incomplete pass forcing UNC to punt and giving Notre Dame new life.
Here is the crux of the issue as I see it: Foster caught the ball, made contact with the ground with his foot, knee, body and elbow, but after rolling over the ball comes out. This entire sequence was ruled a catch by the player who was down by contact and therefore ending the play meaning there was no fumble. This was the call and according to the replay guidelines it requires “incontrovertible evidence” to overturn that call. Now there are two aspects to look at. One was whether it was a fumble and the other is whether it was a completed pass. Since the replay does not show the ball popping loose until after Foster was down and he rolled over, there is no way on earth this can be called a fumble. That leaves the possibility the pass was incomplete by rule.
The genesis of this comes from a rule UNC fans have seen invoked before. Last season versus NCSU Hakeem Nicks went up in the end zone, caught the ball, got flipped over and when his elbow contacted the ground the ball popped loose. This was declared an incomplete pass because the rule states the receiver if he catches the ball in the air and comes down must maintain possession when he contacts the ground. In this case the following rule 7-3-6 was probably applied and it is explained in this scenario from the NCAA rulebook:
XI. Airborne receiver A85 possesses the ball and in the process of going to the ground, first contacts the ground with his left foot as he falls to the ground inbounds. Immediately upon hitting the ground, the ball comes loose and touches the ground. RULING: Incomplete pass. An airborne receiver must maintain control of the ball if going to the ground in the process of completing a catch.
In this case the replay officials are saying that Foster possessed the football but did not maintain possession once he hit the ground on the basis of the ball eventually coming loose as he rolled over after he contacted the ground. That is all well and good but you have one issue: It was ruled a catch on the field which means you would have to come up with indisputable evidence showing the ball coming loose when Foster hit the ground. Such evidence does not exist. Every replay shows Foster catching the ball and coming with one foot, then his knee, then his elbow and finally him rolling over at which point the ball pops out. The last visual of the ball was that it was in Foster’s arm just before he came in contact with the ground. At the moment Foster touches the ground with his elbow the ball cannot be seen from any angle available. So it is pure speculation that the ball was loose when Foster came down. Yes it is agreed the ball came loose at some point after Foster came down but the visual evidence needed to make that call is simply not there and saying it was incomplete based on the fact the ball was loose after Foster rolled over does not, in my opinion, meet the burden of proof required to overturn the call on the field.
In short, the replay officials opted to overturn a call which was correct on the field without the proper visual evidence to do so. Had the play been allowed to stand UNC would have killed the clock and won the game. Since it was overturned Notre Dame received the ball back and drove down field nearly getting into the end zone. What ultimately stopped Notre Dame was yet another replay ruling that Irish receiver Golden Tate had fumbled the ball prior to being down by contact. This was indeed the correct call since replay shows Tate catching the ball then landing on top of a UNC defender and as he is on top of that defender the ball starts to come loose. Tate subsequently hit the ground but in the process finished knocking the ball away resulting in a fumble that UNC recovered. This was initially ruled a completed pass and Tate was down by contact. Unlike the Foster “incomplete pass” the ball is clearly seen coming loose before Tate touches the ground which made it a fumble.
I have said many times that my greatest problem with instant replay in college is the calls still seem to be ruled incorrectly. ACC officials never seem to overturn calls and apparently Big East officials love to do it every chance they get. This is the great inequity in college football. Officials make bad calls and the system meant to correct them also fails to correct the situation. In many ways we really have to live with it but when it almost costs a team the game, it really should be overhauled.
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I was at the game and couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. Didn’t ND actually run a play after the fumble, where the QB spiked the ball? If so, and if the officials allowed them to do that, then how can the fumble play even be reviewed? I thought that once the next play has been run, you can’t stop play and review a previous play. Of course, if that was true, then the game clock ran out anyway and we’d have still won the game. But I guess I’m just curious as to what events transpired immediately after the fumble play, but before the review.
HeelYeah, I think you’re right. I actually think that the call was unreviewable as you state. I also think that the reviewers missed this one also, THF. Tate had full control of the ball, making it a catch, and actually wasn’t stripped but was throwing (lateralling) the ball as he felt there was no time left. The initial call by the refs on the field was correct, as Tate was down by the time he attempted the “lateral.” The clock stopped to reset the down markers and Clausen (who should have had 3 seconds but only had one) spiked it and game is over. I agree with whoever said a sizable riot would have occurred had the review produced any other result than it did. And of course we shouldn’t have been put in that position by the previous Carolina reception that was overturned.
So, a Big East crew in the booth overturned an obvious catch that allowed ND a chance to win. Why would they do that? I mean, it’s not like UNC embarrassed any Big East teams on National television this sea–oh, right.
Rankings are out on ESPN. We are now at 18. Wow.
The wait for that last call was unbearable…. it was so obvious I could only guess we were close to getting screwed.
Yeah, I don’t know what the refs were thinking. Overturning that catch was ridiculous. They spent more time on that play and the final bumbling plays, and yet they didn’t even look at the maybe strip and recovery of Nicks on the 3-18 conversion (which…seriously, how can you let someone run open 19 yards on an 18-yard play?)
While I’m not happy that ND lost, I’d rather lose fairly (or almost) than to have a win stained by imbecilic replay officials.
I think, however, that UNC needs those announcers to travel with them everywhere they go and loudly proclaim “Not a good offense” so that Sexton/Nicks/Draughn can turn it up another notches or two like they did right after Kuntz’ sack. I kept shaking my head saying, “What happened to ‘not a good offense’?”
Anyway, good win. Good game. Glad we didn’t screw you out of a much-deserved W.
You can take “Replay” out of the title and be close to right as well. Aleric Mullins causing a fumble, despite being blatantly held with no call (see the N&O’s photo gallery for proof). Nicks’ phantom holding call on Draughn’s TD. Someone on IC make a good point: how can ND drop back to pass 48 times and not have a SINGLE holding call against them ALL game.
I’m not sure those refs would’ve gotten out of BKS alive if ND had won.
But I’m still living on a high!
1) The receiver who made the catch and then fumbled for ND was Michael Floyd, not Golden Tate. Floyd’s just a freshman, and ND players pretty much admitted to his fumble in the locker room by saying he was trying to lateral the ball, thinking that time had run out — it’s a typical “freshman mistake” on Floyd’s part, both in not going down as soon as he caught the pass (ND would still have time to spike and run one last play, since the clock would stop for their first down) and in foolishly trying to lateral that ball (there were no ND players around to pick it up).
2) The officials on the field were indeed from the Big East, but the guy responsible for all the replay decisions — Joe Rider — was supplied by the ACC. Since the officials on the field ruled the catch a catch, we need to point the finger at our own conference here about the overturn.
3) Not surprisingly, the N&O put up a short news blurb where the ACC’s coordinator of officiating hailed both replay calls as correct:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/acc-both-calls-in-unc-game-correct
I appreciate that MJenks!! We had better not overlook Virginia as they have come on strong since the Duke whacking. The last two have been convincing wins for them. However, I think that we can stop their rising level of confidence with a strong 1st quarter of play.
Needless to say on this BLOG that is was great win for the Heels, despite some “timely” calls that made me think Ron Cherry himself was in the booth. The “hold” against Hakeem was totally BS and give the ND punter an Oscar for having his ankle breathed on……. THF is addressing the “other” issues very well.
* We have come back twice from deficits in the 2nd half to win big ball games that would have been losses last year.
* I was worried about the FG kicking coming into this game and I certainly feel better that we do have a weapon from 45 yards in…..
* The dropped passes by Brooks including the last one and actually THREE dropped interceptions (by Goddard, Paschal and Carter) certainly helped ND stay in the game.
* The Heels offense had 5 strong scoring drives against a Tenuta defense that was big and fast. ND is inexperienced but they will be very good in the coming years.
* Jimmy Clausen is the REAL deal, despite the INT’s and the near INT’s. The only comment about the REFS I’ll make here is that there was a lot of holding going to give him time. I’ve seen 3 pictures of blatant holding. Check out number 27 in the N@O photo gallery.
*Quan’s play was the key because one could feel the momentum shift even though ND scored again.
* Shaughn D. is the real deal and I’d love to see Little moved to the H-Back position. Ryan Houston is playing very well and gives us a chance at ALL short yardage situations.
* How about some kuddos for Cam Sexton!
* Great football crowd that had some of the sweater vesters telling people to sit down….GEEZ!