Thursday, October 11, 2007

Shoddy Officiating

The McSports Report is going to do something new tonight and examine Football Bowl Subdivision play.

In the Thursday night game on ESPN, Florida State and Wake Forest got off to a slow start following the Seminoles' first three plays and subsequent punt. It took 10-15 minutes for the referees to determine that an illegal block in the back by Wake Forest gave FSU the first down their offensive team couldn't produce.

The 'Noles were called for illegal procedure on their first punt and had to assess a five-yard penalty and repeat the fourth down. They punted a second time, and Wake Forest was called for an illegal block in the back, a 10-yard penalty. Initially, the referees announced that the penalty would be assessed 10 yards from where the block occurred and Wake Forest would get possession.

However, events that happened shortly after the illegal block complicated the situation. The punt landed, bounced off the helmet of a Demon Deacon special teams player and was recovered by an FSU player. The referees made three conflicting announcements before they declared an official review of the play.

The referees came to the conclusion that even before the ball bounced off the helment of a Wake Forest player, it had grazed an FSU player, effectively making the ball dead at the point he touched the ball. Subsequently, Florida State was given the option to accept the 10-yard penalty. They did accept, and it gave them a first down — the 'Noles went back to work on offense after all that. Fittingly, Florida State went three-and-out and punted the ball to about the same spot their original punt had landed.

Tell me if you've seen anything more ridiculous — the officials should have gone to instant replay right from the start.

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