|
 Purdue controversy |
 Wednesday, November 7, 2007 |
Ok so there's suddenly a bit of controversy surrounding last week's Purdue game and the officiating that went on. According to some of our fellow good Big Ten bloggers at Michigan Against the World, Purdue was not given a chance to tie the game and possibly beat Penn State. I concur that officiating was horrendous at that game. I was at the 50 yard line and on numerous occasions could not figure out why a flag was thrown or how a blatant hold or out of bounds situation was ignored.
Apparently Purdue filed a grievance to the Big Ten complaining of some missed calls (the one they are mainly concerned with was that the clock kept running and Purdue was forced to burn a time out on their second last drive). Granted that is a blatant mistake and one the referee in charge should be held accountable for, but what happened to Joe Tiller complaining that Kinlaw on the ensuing Penn State drive had actually stepped out of bounds (clearly shown on replay inside the stadium as well) before he fumbled 8 yards later despite a no whistle from the ref when he stepped out of bounds earlier. Then the play was reviewed and because the ruling on the field did not indicate he had stepped out of bounds, the ruling was upheld. Unfair? Yes. Did Penn State gripe about it? Well of course not since they ended up winning the game.
But I was there, there were several holding calls on both teams that were uncalled and numerous pass interference calls that were called which could have been up for debate. Did the lost seconds possibly cost Purdue the game? Well that is a possibility but then Penn State was well within field goal range during the controversial Kinlaw fumble on Penn State's last drive. If the whistle had blown ending the run when he stepped out and Penn State was forced to a fourth down, they could have kicked a field goal extending the lead to 10 points making it a 2 possession lead with less than a minute to go even if Purdue didn't lose their 12 seconds they were griping about. So you gotta take things into perspective. I know the strong Penn State bias here, but things like this happen, Michigan in 2005, Minnesota in 2006, sometimes whistles go your way, other times it doesn't. Don't you think Kinlaw would like the whistle to go his way thereby eliminating the 1 fumble that will be tacked onto his stats?
The final score did not indicate the actual flow of the game in the second half much like Ohio State's score against Wisconsin did not reflect that Wisconsin was actually in the game until the final quarter. After the first kickoff to Purdue was returned for a touchdown, Penn State's defense held the Boilermaker's high flying offense to field goals after field goals. It wasn't until late into the third that Penn State began to back into their infamous bend but don't break schemes. Even the last Purdue drive that ended with a hail mary attempt was indicative of that as Purdue gained 30 quick yards with Penn States secondary all past the Purdue's 40 yard line in a prevent defense. Common now, if Purdue couldn't break through easily the entire game, what makes them think they can do it at the end. The game wasn't really in doubt, though it would have been fun to go into over time.
|
posted by Nittany White Out @ 12:21 PM  |
|
|
|
|
|