I’m not about to blame Saturday’s results on the officiating, but, damn, this is one bad call.
Maybe Reshad was holding back on the shoulder tackling last year because he didn’t want to get flagged for unnecessary roughness. In any event, play on, man.
Get The Picture 
I love the hit by Rashad and hope to see more like that this season. Hopefully the ref’s will not make terrible calls like that the rest of the season.
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I am a fan of this each and every game. Greg Blue wasn’t necessarily the best DB we ever had in coverage, but by laying a few licks on guys similar to the one Jones put up on Saturday, we had opposing receivers taking the quarterback slide because the footsteps were there in their head whether they were coming in reality or not. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a theme for all of college football in 2009 or was Jones singled out?
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I guess we’re not going to get an apology from the officiating crew? Did they check with Wagers first?
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First of all, I think we are seeing refs err on the conservative side for fear of being criticized should someone get hurt. Remember they had alreqady thrown a flag for the same infraction earlier in the game, but picked it up (rightly so.) Yes, it was a bad call but it happened at full speed, AND it looked/sounded bad. The crowd reacted, and the flags came flying. I think we will see more of this type call all year long. It was definitely the wrong call after seeing it in slow motion several times, but I can understand that call being missed more than I can the spot on OSU’s 4th down play that led to the other controversial TD. I cannot understand how CMR did not challenge a spot so significant, one that led directly to a 10 point lead, and one his on the field players were indicating was bad. And he had time to talk to the coaches in the box, or players closest to the action while they measured. That wasn’t worth risking a timeout?
Now I don’t know if the Big 12 crew in the booth would have overturned it because I don’t know if there was an angle that would provide conclusive proof, but it looked like forward motion was stopped to me well short of the mark. The 1st down was by less than two inches based on the measurement.
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The NCAA made for remedy after the game, though. Even if a hit is not penalized, if it is deemed flagrant and illegal after the game, the player can still be suspended. So, the refs should let them play, penalize the obvious ones, and let the video evidence sort things out afterwards.
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I’m not sure they shouldn’t let video evidence sort that out DURING the game. I realize that few people want to use replay for personal fouls, but let’s be honest – fights and fouls like that happen so fast, it’s hard for the naked eye to gauge what happens in a split second. Jones hit did LOOK bad, but everyone now knows it was clean. Turns out Jones is just trying to be a bad mutha.
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You guys brought it on yourself for making my sweet Urbie cry.
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Bring the wood!
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I think instead of tackeling they should just tickle them & if they start laughing then they’re considered down at that point. That way no one is ever hurt. Someone should suggest this new idea to the rules commity.
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That, and the hit Evans put on Dez Bryant, were the highlights of the game for me. I hope our guys keep it up all season long.
Terrible, terrible call.
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Fortunately for us, we won’t have to play with any more Big XII referees who are used to 7-on-7 passing league football instead of tackle football. If SEC refs start pulling that garbage, they’ll have a full-scale revolt on their hands.
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Ha! I forgot to give Georgia a 1st down on a defensive holding call, and I’m still dumped into important games all year!
If you want a vision of the future, imagine my boot stamping on a human face – forever.
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“Let’em play football.”
-My sentiments exactly.
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One of the blogers went to great lengths to look at the new rule (sorry can’t remember who). The rule actually states that if there is any doubt about whether the hit was legal the refs should throw the flag hence the reason the sky turned yellow after RJ’s hit. We know we have been singled out by the SEC for “special treatment” for our 2007 escape and that resulted in them throwing more flags on us last year than a NASCAR Starter. It will continue this year because the SEC sees no reason GT graduates should not ref UGA games since GT is not in our conference. I only wish the head of SEC officials was a FSU grad instead of a GT grad, Urban would piss his pants.
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Check out the cut block at the 46 second mark.
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2 things:
1) Those refs are so inept, they called the “penalty” on the wrong guy.
2) As coondawg pointed out, that is a blatantly cheap, Auburn-esque, chop block by oSu.
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I think there is a problem when officials are trying to clamp down on these more “violent” plays and yet these calls aren’t reviewable. Going at full speed, I’m sure it’s hard to tell if RJ’s hit is clean or not, so why not have an official in the booth that can say to the refs, “I don’t think you saw what you think you saw”. Of course, if that happened, the game might last forever.
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I DO blame the outcome of the game on this and other bad calls. This bad call led directly to a TD for the Pokes. The bad spot one 4th and 1 at the Georgia 2 led to another. There were others ,too. The Dawgs lost by 14. I figure in a cleanly called game the Dawgs win 17–10.
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the head of the sec officials is not a gt grad..bobby gaston was two years ago but he retired….and you did not have to worry about his being partial to uga opppnents during the time he was there.he was a good gt guy….uga 1955
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Why was this hit flagged but the one that took Chapas’ helmet off was not? The referees originally threw flags on the Chapas hit across the middle but waved them off and said there is no penalty. Something was definitely rotten in Still H2O.
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I don’t want to beat a dead horse but… more stuff keeps coming to the surface about this game and it all smells. It turns out that Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys offered OSU $8.5 Million to play this game at his new Cowboy stadium in Arlington, Texas. The normal gate for the OSU stadium is $2.5 Million. OSU turned down the offer even though OSU would have gotten $6 Million more by moving the game to that neutral site. Why? Everyone saw the bad calls against Georgia. We got home cooked and it was planned. T. Boone Pickens has spent $300 Million of his own money trying to make his alma mater OSU a national football power. In order to do that they needed a signature win against a national powerhouse–preferably on national TV. They got the game–and the patsy– they wanted. They even sent their team to Athens to get the crap beat out of them in ’07 in order to set this up.But it does no good if the Pokes lose. They have to be guaranteed a win. What is the best way to do that? Play UGA at Stillwater where they can homecook us with impunity. And that is exactly what happened. There needs to be an investigation into what happened here. I figure if the game was called straight the score is 17-10 Georgia. Worst case it is a 10–10 tie and into overtime. People on the inside probably also cleaned up betting on the game. Doesn’t anyone at the NCAA even give a rip about keeping the sport honest? Too much of this crap goes on. Every Dawg fan needs to raise hell about this–don’t let it just get swept under the rug. I have been critical of Damon Evans about this game all along because it was so obviously a trap. He should have seen it coming and gotten the Dawgs out of it. If I had been AD I would have insisted that OSU take the offer in Arlington and if not I would have backed out of the game. We could have always gotten a walkover team to come to Athens to fill the slot by offering them some serious money. I don’t care if OSU threatened litigation. What could they really do? Stuff like what happened in this game can ruin a team. 20 year old kids all think they are bulletproof and when they learn that they are not (or that they can be cheated even when they try their best) it can really affect their confidence. I only hope this does not start the Dawgs on a downhill slide that ruins the season. Even if Richt rights the ship Damon Evans should get the ax for this.
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First off, I thought that was a horrible call. I’m only wondering, if Jones had wrapped him up and taken him down, would they have made the same call???
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