I have to give them credit to the Norte Dame Irish, they came out at the start of their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels and played well. They took a lead and were looking to win the game. If they won this game, and fairly, I would've put them in my Top 25.
UNC played their hearts out in the second half and took a 29-24 lead. Late in the fourth, on a third down play, North Carolina completed a pass for about 30 yards down the field. After he was already down, the North Carolina player let go of the ball. The play was ruled as a catch on the field. This play went under review.
From the angles given, there was no evidence that the receiver could've possibly lost possession of the ball, or could have not caught the ball. After several minutes of review, the replay official called down to the field. The referee stated that the North Carolina player did not catch the ball, and UNC was forced to punt.
Notre Dame, led by Jimmy Clausen, put together a very nice drive. On fourth and 13 with 11 seconds left, Jimmy threw a completion to the five yard line, where the receiver then fumbled and North Carolina recovered. This play went under review.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Once again, there was conclusive evidence that the play should stand and no evidence that it should be overturned. Fortunately, the replay official must have realized that trying to cheat this much would result in an investigation by the NCAA, so he must've decided to let the right call stand, and UNC won the game.
This Big East replay official must've been a huge fan of Notre Dame because any sane person with any vision at all would see these plays as having no chance of being overturned.
Even the announcers were screaming both times that there is no evidence to overturn the call and it would be ridiculous that they would consider turning it over.
Another thing, each review took several minutes. Now, if a play has clear cut evidence to be overturned, then it would take no more than one or two minutes to see that the call on the field was clearly wrong, and then to make sure.
If a play takes several minutes to review, then clearly the evidence is either too close to call or too hard to see, and that is not indisputable evidence, so therefore the call cannot be reversed.
Go ahead Notre Dame fans, yell at me and say it wasn't an attempt at a cheat. You know that in your heart that I am right, but you just want to defend the cheat by the refs. It wasn't the Irish's fault, it was the replay official's. You don't have to yell at me for calling the refs cheaters.
The moral of this story: Some people will do anything and cheat to any measures to try and help their team win.
Another moral is that if a replay takes more than a couple of minutes, the evidence is not clear and therefore the call on the field cannot be overturned due the rules that have been instated by the NCAA.
comments (42) write a comment »
write a new comment
about 1 month ago
um, this might be the worst post of all-time. here's why:
the 'catch' for UNC was ruled incomplete because the rule states if you are going to the ground while making a catch, which he was, you must control the ball AFTER AND ALL THE WAY THROUGH falling to the ground. if the ball comes out while landing, which obviously happened, its incomplete. thats the rule, anybody who watches the nfl or ncaa enough has seen this play before. the replay official got it right.
and, finally, in the 3rd quarter, UNC receiver richard quinn caught a pass for 15 yards and a first down, and notre dame stripped the ball from him before he went to the ground. replays confirm this, and both announcers in the booth confirmed it. YET THERE WAS NO OFFICIAL REVIEW. unc ended up scoring on the drive, the blown call cost notre dame 7 points.
so, if anything, the official cheated AGAINST notre dame.
awful post dude. try again.
from about 1 month ago
Yeah...what he said.
from about 1 month ago
I'd have to agree with Ryan on both accounts.
Furthermore, the second official review at the end of the game, when Mike Floyd fumbled the ball trying to lateral it backwards, the question was not whether or not he was down. The question was how much time to put back on the clock. Even though it didn't matter much because NC had the ball.
from about 1 month ago
Yeah. This has been called consistently the same way all season through multiple games. The rule is stupid considering the fact that all you need is one foot in and the ball in your hands when you go out of bounds, but if you are in bounds, the rule is stricter. It is what it is, but the officials got it right, just like they got the fumble at the end right, unfortunately. The ball was not fully controlled when Floyd's shoulder hit, then he just continued the lack of full control by throwing the ball backwards.
from about 1 month ago
A few words. It was ruled a catch, and there was absolutely no evidence to overturn it even if it wasn't a catch by rule. The catch and fall and roll over of the WR was completely blocked out by other players from every angle...its not even possible to overturn that call. Don't think I'm hating on ND. I would say this about every other team in the same situation.
I would even say it about PSU, although I would not write about how my favorite team got a bad call to go for them and that's why they won...or had a chance to win.
from about 1 month ago
ok ryan the fact is that he was not going to the ground as he was making the catch, he caught it and took three steps before he hit the ground. It is a totally different situation than what you're describing.
Also what abou that roughing the kicker call on unc in the 3rd quarter was that a legit call?
from about 1 month ago
Thank you Samuel for backing me up. These guys are just biased homers.
about 1 month ago
wow, you must really hate Notre Dame to bitch about the officiating after a game the lose.
from about 1 month ago
I said I would rank ND if they won the game, but not after those calls. I gave credit to ND and believe they are a good team. This article is going against the replay official, not Notre Dame! Also, I would love to write an article on all the bad officiating games, but other people write them before me...such as when Lisa Horne wrote about the bad officiating in the Red River Rivalry. I like to write about close games where the refs cheat, since the Michigan refs cheated in 2005 against PSU, and I've hated refs ever since.
about 1 month ago
worst article ever....unbelievable actually...really the refs tried to cheat...honestly notre dame dominated that game for three quarters but some costly mistakes resulted in a loss...give credit to both teams...blaming refs for anything is ridiculous....
from about 1 month ago
I did give credit to ND for playing very well and UNC for coming back...but the officials made a bad call and almost a second bad call. Even if it wasn't a catch, it was ruled a catch on the field and there was no conclusive evidence to overturn it. When you are taking hours to review a call and there is no evidence, then don't even bother overturning it. Everyone in the world but you biased ND fans think that the call shouldn't have been overturned.
from about 1 month ago
Every fan and coach and player blames the refs, and rightfully so! You're just being a biased homer because its about your team!
about 1 month ago
It's pretty awesome that this site is permeated by people like this...
from about 1 month ago
That's just disrespectful...I'm not even going against your team. I am complaining about bad officiating, like every other fan does! Everyone knows that the refs are blind and dumb, and I was just writing about an example. If this wasn't about your team, I'm sure you wouldn't be acting like a biased jerk to me and you would agree. BIASED ND HOMER!
from about 1 month ago
I am not a biased ND homer, rather you're a biased ND "hater".
The fact is, is that the refs weren't trying to cheat for Notre Dame, and to associate Notre Dame with your claim that the refs were cheating is being disrespectful to Notre Dame.
Referee's aren't going to get every call right. I was surprised they overturned that call in ND's favor, but to perfectly fair, they missed the interception by Robert Blanton, so were the ref's trying to cheat for North Carolina?
To write an article on here that claims that referees were trying to cheat is pure ameturism when all you really wanted to say was that you were disagree with some of their calls. I would figure that people who join this site and try to write some semi-professional articles to build their experience or create some contacts wouldn't write something like this. Then again, I made a mistake by confusing you with them.
from about 1 month ago
If you read my whole article, you would see that I was hating the refs, and I said I give ND credit for playing well. I also said ND was a very good team this year...
I will admit I am not a fan of ND, and do not like them because they disrespected PSU in a game a few years ago, and I will go into more detail if necessary, but my point is that refs suck. They always make the wrong call and I'm sick of teams getting robbed because they are either favoring a team or just don't bother to review the call or use evidence to overturn a call.
For example: Every call in the Michigan vs PSU game in 2005 went Michigan's way. They refused to review anything for PSU, even though we wanted a review, but would review anything for Michigan...as you see, they were homefield refs. On the last drive, the 2 most bs calls ever allowed Michigan to cheat to beat us, and it was all because of the refs.
Ever since then, I couldn't stand bad calls that do or potentially cost teams the game. I was going to do an article on the Red River Rivalry game and how bad the officiating was, but Lisa Horne beat me to it. So instead, I wrote an article on how bad this officiating was...by the way, I only write articles about officiating if I watch the whole game, so don't say I didn't.
The refs clearly weren't home field refs, as the game was at UNC. Also, the headline I used attracts more readers, so that's why I used cheat in my articles. Also, I do believe it was a cheat. Even if it wasn't a purposeful cheat, it still was one. Refs accidentally cheat for teams all the time, except the 2005 UM vs PSU game, that was a cheat on purpose, which robbed PSU of going to the National Championship, by the way.
from about 1 month ago
Every definition of the word cheat includes some sort of intentional action. Therefore, you cannot accidentally cheat, or cheat unknowingly. You can make a mistake, which no referee is void of doing, but you can't cheat unintentionally. And saying that the referees cheated for Notre Dame implies that Notre Dame knew about it as well.
We can argue all you want, but you see it one way and I see it another. Let's leave it at that.
about 1 month ago
I didn't see either reviewed call or the potential fumble in the original broadcast. I have seen a couple of clips of the final review, but I don't know if they are the game footage or the additional angles. The ND radio announcers missed the lateral possibility on that play, saying the lengthy review involved whether or not there was a catch and the whole issue of when the play ended vis-a-vis putting time back on the clock, but they also pointed out (without getting overly excited) that there was a question of whether or not Clausen had snapped that play before a 12th man reached the sidelines for NC and that one of the outtake film clips showed it fairly clearly. Anybody reading here see that? If indeed that is clearly visible with NO flag on the play is that aspect even reviewable? If clear and reviewable it sounds like both the refs on the field AND the replay official blew one. One of those situations where even with replay one will never know what might have been, but ND and her fans (myself definitely included) have no room to complain anyway with all the mistakes and missed opportunities in this one.
from about 1 month ago
There were a plethora of possiblities at the end of the game on what to review.
1. Whether it was a catch by Mike Floyd or not.
2. Whether or not the ball was coming out when his helmet hit the ground.
3. Whether or not there was a 12th man on the field for NC when the snap was called.
4. Whether or not Jimmy Clausen spiked the ball in enough time before the clock it :00.
5. How much time was on the clock when NC recovered the ball.
All of these things could have been reviewed. It seemed, by the response of the referee when he came out of the review headphones that they were deciding whether or not it was a fumble and how much time was on the clock.
But, consider this. Mike Floyd fumbled the ball and the referee still took the ball up to the 10 yard line (or wherever he caught it) and placed it there indicating that it was ND's ball at that spot. Then, JC quickly went up to the line and spiked the ball. That is one play, and technically, you can't go back and review the play before that because another play had already expired. If in fact JC did get up to the line and spike the ball, then the pseudo-fumble by Mike Floyd was not reviewable.
about 1 month ago
I said I would rank ND if they won the game, but not after those calls. I gave credit to ND and believe they are a good team. This article is going against the replay official, not Notre Dame!
about 1 month ago
I suppose you realize that was probably a makeup call for the awful, awful error on 3&18?
Two refs made two different calls and they didn't review the play the should have been a fumble. NC went on to score the touchdown that was the difference in the game.
Here's the picture. The refs cheated for North Carolina
http://www.ndnation.com/index.php
from about 1 month ago
Fine, then the game was even and UNC won fairly. The two bad calls will cancel each other out.
about 1 month ago
also, the final play was not even reviewable. rule 12-3-3-b states that "When a ball carrier is judged down by rule and the ball is fumbled, the play may be reviewed if the recovery of the ball occurs in the immediate action following the fumble and is prior to any official signaling that the ball is dead."
if you read that rule, there are 2 parameters that have to be met for floyds fumble to be reviewed: 1) "the recovery must be in the immediate action following the fumble..." This obviously didnt happen, the ball rolled 10 yards away. certainly not immediate. 2) The recovery was not prior to any official signaling the ball is dead. they ruled floyd down on the field, and you can see in the highlight the irish players looking at the side judges, reacting to their signal, and thus running up to the new line of scrimmage to spike the ball.
the fumble was NOT reviewable, the only thing that was reviewable was the clock. so, after the review, the only LEGAL option for the referees was to give the ball to ND at the UNC 6 with 5 seconds left, which is how much time left when floyd was ruled down.
from about 1 month ago
However, he was not judged down. It was ruled a fumble, and they almost overturned it, but there was not enough evidence to...which didn't seem to stop them on the 3rd down UNC catch. Therefore, UNC won the game and the worst call was the catch that was overturned with absolutely no evidence.
about 1 month ago
no, isaac, ND got screwed twice by the refs, both on fumbles by wide receivers. go read my first post again.
the play youre complaining about, where the UNC receiver lets go of the ball when he hits the ground - that play was CORRECTLY ruled incomplete. its a dumb rule, but a rule nonetheless.
from about 1 month ago
Read my reply. Also, on the 3rd down play there was no evidence showing that the ball came out before he rolled over and got up. The play on each angle was blocked out by another player, and therefore could not be overturned. Even if it wasn't a catch, there was no evidence to overturn the ruling on the field.
about 1 month ago
you said he was not judged down...thats entirely untrue. he was judged down, which is why ND ran up to the line and clausen spiked the ball. if he were not judged down on the field, UNC would have been lining up to take a knee when the play would have been reviewed, not notre dame going up for a spike. he WAS ruled down, and the recovery of the ball was not immediate.
on the 3rd down play, the ball clearly came out when his upper body contacted the ground. i dont know what youre smoking my man.
about 1 month ago
any educated football fan expected the 3rd down catch to be overturned and ruled an incompletion, this play happens alot in the nfl and college. re: texas-OU endzone INT.
the point is, the replay official refused to look at a blatant UNC fumble in the 3rd quarter, but then incorrectly reviews the ND fumble at the end of the game. yet despite all that, you come and make this highly uninformed post calling CHEATING!!! like its some kind of conspiracy. im not calling conspiracy, i just think replay officials are extremely inefficient and it just happened to go against ND twice in one game.
had that 3rd down catch NOT been overturned, they would have gotten it wrong 3 times against ND.
from about 1 month ago
the OU game had conclusive evidence. The ND game had no evidence what so ever. That's the difference! Even if its the rule, if the ruling on the field is a completion, and there is no evidence that could possibly change that, then it is a completion!
about 1 month ago
Isaac obviously watched this game, unlike most the people posting comments
from about 1 month ago
Thank you Samuel.
about 1 month ago
And here it is.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/67975-how-the-refs-cheated-notre-dame-against-unc
from about 1 month ago
You can have your opinion but facts are facts...and it doesn't matter because UNC won anyway. I wasn't even going against ND, I was saying how bad the refs were, and how two questionable calls went in ND's favor and one more almost did. That is, if you use "questionable" as meaning the worst calls on earth besides the 2005 Michigan cheat over Penn State.
about 1 month ago
its funny how i come with passages from the rulebook to prove my point, yet you call it an opinion. everything i stated is fact based, everything you stated is opinion. i know the rules for a catch, and you dont.
from about 1 month ago
I know the rule is correct, but the ruling on the field was a CATCH! If you looked at the replay, even the announcers said there is absolutely no evidence to overturn the call, whether it actually was a catch or not. It doesn't matter about opinion, the fact was that it was ruled a catch and there was no evidence to overturn it, so regardless if he lost possession or not, the ruling has to say the same as on the field if there is no conclusive evidence to overturn it.
from about 1 month ago
Ryan, after the game the refs apologized to butch davis for blowing the brooks foster catch call. They said they we're disgraced by they're call and they were very sorry. What other evidence do you need?
about 1 month ago
id like to see where they apologized, cuz thats the first i heard.
but if they did apologize, then the rule has to be amended. the way the rule reads, it is not a catch.
also, if they apologized to davis, then they owe weis several more, because they missed a fumble in the 3rd quarter that cost the irish 7 points.
about 1 month ago
First off, anyone jumping on here calling this the worst post ever is a punk and an obvious liar. If it was the worst post ever, you wouldn't comment. You'd just ignore it. What you are actually saying is there is some merit to Isaac's argument and you don't like it as ND fans or alums.
Sven - ND fan
Jon - ND fan
Derek - ND fan and grad
Ryan - ND fan
Paul - ND fan
James - ND fan (you're an especially transparent punk b/c you've been on here a day and claim this is the worst post ever or you signed up an additional account just to trash it)
Rock - ND fan and either a plagiarizer or on here with multiple accounts
Steve - ND fan
And yes, if you joined a day ago and this is the only article you've commented on, I'm counting you.
I only saw the very end of the game and 2 things were obvious:
1. That ND player tried to lateral the ball so it was obviously a fumble. That it wasn't immediately called as such is ridiculous.
2. The refs blew the reversal. The NBC announcers were even saying the reversed call was atrocious. That would be the men who broadcast NOTHING but ND games watched by basically ND fans and no one else. They work for a network that has an exclusive contract w/ND. As in ND and ND alone.
But even more important is this kid went out of his way to compliment your team. Maybe you don't agree with him. Quite frankly, I don't think any ref cheats unless he's gambling on the game. But making personal attacks on some anonymous stranger who has shown obvious intent NOT to offend you is the mark of a chump.
C-H-U-M-P. Chump.
And I look forward to the day you similarly antagonize someone to his/her face for the first time and get dropped where you stand.
You pansies truly embody the virtue that ND should be so proud of instilling in its fans and alums.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks man. Do they not realize that I was giving credit to their teams and going against the refs? I mean, I responded to them many times and they still are convinced that I am going against their team, not the refs.
from about 1 month ago
They don't even notice.
All they notice is that you are saying Notre Dame is imperfect. That ND has actually suffered a legit defeat. That ND is fallible just like the Pope.
Keep writing reality. Most people appreciate it as proven by the number of reads and the paucity of complaints from non-ND fans.
about 1 month ago
i have to say that i usually like your posts but this one not so much. The only part I dont like is where you said that it was a fumble in the 4th, but it was not a fumble. If anything it was an incomplete pass because the ground caused him to drop the ball. I my self thought he had possession long enough for it to be a catch.
from about 1 month ago
I don't know. Everyone has different views but I'm going to stick with my opinion here...I believe I am right and others believe they are right. One thing we can agree on is that the refs in Happy Valley this year were the same that were in Ann Arbor in 2005. Time was being put on and off the clock, PSU never got one call. I mean, Clark was down for at least 3 seconds before the ball came out and they ruled it a fumble. Also, Astirino's pick was overturned and he clearly had it. PSU was still able to crush UM, but UM sure did get a lot of calls.
write a new comment