There is a buzz about the BYU slim victory over a medicore Washington Husky team. BYU's defense proved itself to not be very good and frankly the game should not have even been this close, because BYU running back Harvey Unga fumbled at the one which would have put BYU up by two touchdowns, or just look at BYU's defense on that last drive that let Washington's Jake Locker get a first down on a fourth and ten broken play that allowed Locker to run for the first down.
In the Bleachers posted what the new rule is for excessive celebration which is:
After a score or any other play; the player in possession immediately
must
return the ball to the official or leave it near the dead ball spot.
Washington quarterback Jake Locker did toss the ball up pretty high after
he scored, and technically the ball was not handed to a ref or was it placed
near the play, but his intent was not to rub it into BYU. The best place written
about this call is ESPN’s Pac-10 blogger Ted Miller.
The Spirit of that rule was completely betrayed by the call. And, oh by the
way, smart officials have been ignoring it these first two weekends (see
ASU's Keegan Herring launching the ball skyward
without sanction after he scored a TD vs. Stanford).
Totally agree with Miller it was a celebration that was not intended to show up BYU, and yeah the kick was blocked and that technically was the reason did not go into over time. However, the distance moved the ball back from a near chip shot to a more difficult extra point that was now a 32 yarder, plus the influx in emmotions of a great score and now the low of a penalty.
Other things I have been hearing is from the Salt Lake Tribune Blogger Jay Drew who’s quotes are quite humorous, and very pro BYU for a journalist who is supposed to cover the Cougars.
A side tangent is that the Utah media is very soft and would ratther be buddy-buddy with the coaches and players then ask legit questions. Just look back at when the BYU freshman receiver, I forget his name, was complaining about being so low on the depth chart and when local radio was asking him about it and when Bronco Mendenhall and other BYU coaches heard they became very upset and defensive about talking to him, and told the reporters to leave. Sorry about that, but here are Drew’s quote.
Are you serious, Jay! Hate to be reptitive, but the extra point to tie the game at normal length was tough enough with two seconds, but toss in the extra 15 yards and the highs and lows of a good touchdown run by Jake Locker and then a penalty.
…Announcers on the highlight shows are saying the ruling kept the game from
going into overtime. Well, not exactly. The blocked PAT — regardless of the
length — kept the game from going into overtime. I’m not sure the kick would
have made it from the normal extra-point length.
Congrats to BYU for getting the win and making the clutch block by Jan Jorgense, but COME ON the penalty was interpeted wrong and took the fun out of the game.
As always go check out more Mountain West news at The Mountain West Conference Connection
2 response(s):
Even as a big BYU fan, I must admit that the call was questionable even though it falls under the letter of the rule. However, having reffed and played in my share of football and soccer games, it is important to understand that bad calls are just a part of the game in the same way getting sacked or throwing an interception is a part of the game. And another part of the game is learning to recover from those poor calls, bad plays, and team errors. The recovery in this case would have been making a longer PAT and it was blocked by good defensive coordination on BYU's part (though it sucked most of the game). In short, it sucks, but bad calls are a part of every sport.
Not sure if the replay above shows it, but UW was clearly planning to go for 2 were it not for the penalty. Willingham started to hold up two fingers.
I call that changing the game.
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