Week 3 Officiating Issues

[Bobref]

Through the first 2 weeks of the season, we seemed to have avoided major controversy. That’s nice, but it can’t last forever. Maybe this will be the week when “fans” return to normal ... and officiating controversies will follow, like night follows day.

Post issues that arise in Week 3 games here. Keep the bit*hing to a minimum and give some specificity with your observations, so they can provide the grist for our discussion mill.

Good luck to the third team on the field this weekend! GTBO!

[oldtimeqb]

I would be curious your opinion on the mechanics of this 4th down play and subsequent measurement.

https://www.14news.com/video/2020/09/04/central-vs-memorial-fourth-quarter/

Play is at 3:30 mark of the video. 

Run by QB. Ball spotted by umpire. Referee picks it up and runs it out to the wing to be re-spotted.  Then the chains are brought in and first down is gained by less than a link. 

[Bobref]

3 minutes ago, oldtimeqb said:

I would be curious your opinion on the mechanics of this 4th down play and subsequent measurement.

https://www.14news.com/video/2020/09/04/central-vs-memorial-fourth-quarter/

Play is at 3:30 mark of the video. 

Run by QB. Ball spotted by umpire. Referee picks it up and runs it out to the wing to be re-spotted.  Then the chains are brought in and first down is gained by less than a link. 

I have a few personal preferences that are different than the way they went about it. But this is not a bad mechanic. The wing official at the bottom of the screen has the forward progress spot. He comes in hard, as far as he can without moving off the line. He’s taught to come in as far as the first body, and stop. But he can’t come in as far as the ball. The R correctly brings him the ball, rather than tossing it to him, and they spot it at his forward progress spot. They measure it from there. It would be nice if they could just freeze the ball and measure it there, but that is the wing officials’ forward progress spot, and that’s where they will measure it.

[Huge Football Fan]

1 hour ago, oldtimeqb said:

I would be curious your opinion on the mechanics of this 4th down play and subsequent measurement.

https://www.14news.com/video/2020/09/04/central-vs-memorial-fourth-quarter/

Play is at 3:30 mark of the video. 

Run by QB. Ball spotted by umpire. Referee picks it up and runs it out to the wing to be re-spotted.  Then the chains are brought in and first down is gained by less than a link. 

I thought it looked pretty good I was expecting something really bad but this looked pretty good   I also expected the next down to be snapped from the hash but they actually moved the ball back to where it should of been

[Impartial_Observer]

3 hours ago, Bobref said:

I have a few personal preferences that are different than the way they went about it. But this is not a bad mechanic. The wing official at the bottom of the screen has the forward progress spot. He comes in hard, as far as he can without moving off the line. He’s taught to come in as far as the first body, and stop. But he can’t come in as far as the ball. The R correctly brings him the ball, rather than tossing it to him, and they spot it at his forward progress spot. They measure it from there. It would be nice if they could just freeze the ball and measure it there, but that is the wing officials’ forward progress spot, and that’s where they will measure it.

Curious what you thoughts are Bob, aside from why was there a measurement? Mechanics are pretty much by the book. 

[oldtimeqb]

11 hours ago, Huge Football Fan said:

I thought it looked pretty good I was expecting something really bad but this looked pretty good   I also expected the next down to be snapped from the hash but they actually moved the ball back to where it should of been

Watching live I thought the U spotted the ball and I looked away to say something to a friend. Next thing you know it’s outside the hash and they are bringing in the chains. I wasn’t sure how it got from point A to point B.

Thankfully the stream was there because my memory didn’t agree with what happened. @Bobref’s explanation as to the run vs toss the ball to the wing makes sense too.

 

[Bobref]

14 hours ago, Impartial_Observer said:

Curious what you thoughts are Bob, aside from why was there a measurement? Mechanics are pretty much by the book. 

There are a couple of things that are non-standard, mostly revolving around the line judge’s responsibilities. And some personal preference issues. First, I hate the R running the ball to the wing official’s FP spot. That’s U’s job. Next, I hate R going over and beanbagging the 90 degree spot for the H to use when he gets the chains out there. The 1960s called, and they want their mechanics back.  That’s a holdover from when we were doing varsity games using 4 officials. The L should be there holding that spot. B then holds the ball at the FP spot while U takes the front stake and they measure. It was probably unavoidable here, due to the closeness of the measurement. But you don’t want everyone bunching up around the ball like that, because then the coaches on the sidelines can’t see the measurement. B needs to make sure he’s on the offensive side, behind the ball when he holds it, for the same reason. Not to block sight lines.