So Grow Up Already

24 Responses to “So Grow Up Already”

1. BlindHog on October 28th, 2008 9:34 am

   You said it HogBlogger.

   We are too young with too many ‘holes’ at just the right spots to keep us from making enough progress to look like a team. It is easy to pick on Casey. He is to running a real offense for the first time. He is at best more like a sophmore considering the coaching and the offense he had before. We have no tailback, no fullback, young corners and safeties. The young recievers are good but they don’t have one upper classmen that is a real go to guy to take the pressure off and Casey does not throw the long ball. Smith is wonderful but he is more of a change of pace guy, a third down back. The linebackers are too young and too small. They are stepping up as best they can.

   We needed those last two games. But, we will continue to improve. I fear it will be at the same pace and with similar results. Until we start to put the ball in the endzone we have no chance and, we aren’t going to do that until we get a little more quarterbacking and a bigger tailback.
2. Jimdog on October 28th, 2008 10:18 am

   Just a note on the officating at th e Ole Miss game. i didn’t see the game so I can’t comment of whether the call on Crawford was correct. I read Wally Hall’s anaysis and he raised the cloud of suspicion because of the anxiousness of the refs to give the Rebs the ball on the onside kick. But I have a little different perspective on the refferring. I think you must review film of the entire game to see if the officiating was unfbalancedr. Things like not calling line movement by Ole Miss .However, Petrino has sent a clip of the play to the SEC Office, not that it will do much good. Getting intot the ref’s head on that play i would say that the contact looked like interference on somebody. The ref probably thought that if he called it on Ole Miss and replay showed it to be offensive interference, there would be hell to pay with Nutt. Call it on the Hogs and tere is heck to pay. Pulling the flag late indicated that these thoughts were passing through his mind, as well as the ref really not knowing who did what to whom and he made a panic decision. But as I said, one needs to look at the whole game to determine bias.

   This is not the only blown play by a ref and there will be more to come . The biggesst blown play of the day came at the Mich State- Michigan game. A pass play was ruled complete for a touchdown for Michigan when the receiver caught the ball and his foot touched the pylon coming down. The TD was upheld but it was found out later that the pylon is considered to be part of the sideline and therefore the pass should hav been incomplete. It turned out to be moot since MSU won by 2 touchdowns. But if it had caused the Spartans to lose then full class riots would have broken out in East Lansing. MSU clearly had the better team and to lose on referrees ignorance of the rules would have been unbearaable. MSU was trying to break a 6 game losing streak to UM, It’s instate rival. The Big Ten would have had a major problem on its hands to the possible point of perhaps really becoming the Big Ten if MSU bolted to the Big East., In that case even replay didn’t help because the refs in the replay booth didn’t know the rules.
3. HogBlogger on October 28th, 2008 2:49 pm

   Jimdog - The officiating created questions for me the entire game, and has ever since the Alabama game. There was a litany of holding that Alabama did when they played us that was not called, some very visible on key passes they completed.

   Review of the Ole Miss tape shows that Casey was clearly beyond the tackle when called for intentional grounding on the first drive. The Mississippi touchdown that had the weird defensive face mask call sure looked like a push off to me. The official that threw that flag was out of position to see a face mask grabbed. D.J. Williams was being held coming off the line on a number of plays - one of which clearly cost us a first down as he was being held with the ball in the air. Casey snapped the ball as the clock hit zero once and the flag was already being pulled.

   Obviously we limited our motion and resets against Ole Miss after the experience at Kentucky - where things that had been ok all year (and were mostly ok on film against Kentucky) suddenly drew a number of flags.

   As to the call on Crawford, I haven’t seen a replay that is clear to me one way or the other. Obviously the guy who made the call was out of position. Crawford has obviously pushed off on a couple of those plays already this year. Officials file that sort of thing away in their film reviews. I think his history made the call, not the actual play.

   On the onsides kick, the film I watched clearly showed we recovered the ball and hit the ground a couple of yards in bounds, but then immediately rolled over out of bounds.

   There are a couple of instances I remember in early games where the official had his hand on his flag prior to the end of the play and there was no doubt he was going to throw it and call something.

   Officials impact games with a lot of seemingly innocent calls much more than they do with one big call. I don’t think there is a plot against Arkansas, but I do think that we are not expected to win, are not felt to be as good as the other teams, and that this causes a slight bias in the officiating. Respect plays a bigger role than you might think. I’ve had officials tell me that they give the benefit of the doubt to the “better players” in basketball, and that they call games with players that they “know will be a problem before the game ever starts”. It is a better story for the SEC if Houston Dale comes back to Arkansas and wins just as it is better for the SEC if Alabama is strong.

   As well, I think Bobby Petrino is simply going thru a bit of a hazing process by the officials. Nothing to do but grin and bear it right now. The Hogs day will come. The return of Arkansas from the depths will make a good story someday.

   Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they are are not out to get me. I still remember the fumble recovery in the Liberty Bowl where the Razorback player got up and handed the ball to the official and the official gave the ball to Tennessee. And the pass interference against SMU that was such an injustice the rules were changed after it cost us a trip to the Cotton Bowl.

   I think I’m ranting. I won’t even go into what I think about the NBA officiating.
4. JONAS on October 28th, 2008 4:05 pm

   We always get screwed by the refs. This has happened ever since we joined the SEC. This goes for both football and basketball. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are not original charter members of the SEC. The refs hate to see Arkansas come into the SEC and win. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad that we are in the SEC, but sometimes I wish we were in the Big 12. I miss playing the Texas teams.
5. hawgfan100 on October 28th, 2008 4:56 pm

   “…I haven’t seen a replay that is clear to me one way or the other.”

   The Razorback Expats has a posting that has a link to Arkansas Online (IIRC) that has an excellent shot of the play. Long story short; there’s no way that was interference on Crawford. Should have been a ‘no-call’.
6. Guinness Snout on October 29th, 2008 7:25 am

   JONAS,
   Every team gets screwed by the refs. I think it has been pretty balanced since joining the SEC. Do you remember the SWC? The favorite pastime of ref’s and Raycom was to screw the outcast state (Arkansas).
7. Jimdog on October 29th, 2008 11:59 am

   Hogblogger: Excellent analysis. Refs are only human. They don’t have to be told what the league officials really want. In this case Mississippi. The SMU fiasco is a case in point. For those whlo don’t know of this, it was 4th and long for the Ponies and a change of possesion meant the Hogs would run out the clock. The SMU receiver ran up the back of the Arkansas defender hoping that the refs would give him the call, as the receiver later admitted. Add to this that the ball was entirely uncatchable by anyone, except fans in the stands. The call was not made just in front of the fans in the stadium but before a live, national TV audience. The announcers in the booth could not believe it. They were to say, in the least, astounded and stunned. As expected, that film made the rounds on sports programs all over the nation as well as in the press. It was probably he worst call ever made on national TV. And It had several repercussions. The least being that the league quietly fired the ref in the off season and even then the zebra made the dinner rounds in Texas loudly proclaimiing his innocence. Or in plain words, who do you believe me or the visual evidence? Second, it tarnished, if much tarnishing was needed, the reputation of the old SWC. Lastly, it probably helped to push the need for instant replay later on down the line, being a poster child for bad referring. Although pass interference is not reviewable, another ref, knowing they were being recorded and on TV, could have come in and overtuned the call. Just by saying,”Now do you really, really want to make this call?

   Now why the bad call? SMU was the glamour team of the Conference because of Eric Dickerson. Perhaps the ref panicked because he knew the conference wanted SMU to win and it was the refs last chance. Even so, SMU still had to drive for the winning score. Stopping SMU, like MSU outscoring Michigan, would have made the bad call moot and the ref probably wouldn’t have been fired and the call wouldn’t be much remembered, although he would have never refereed another Hog game. The first and natural reaction by many, including me, was “Who paid him?” Another historic bad call was made in the Liberty Bowl game, years and years ago. Arkansas kicked a game winning field goal. but, a motion call set the Hogs back a further 5 yards. Arkansas missed. Lost the game. Game films revealed no movement in the Arkansas line. The fact that the game was in Memphis and against Tennessee, made the whole thing a dastardly plot, to the extent, that Arkansas vowed it would never again play in the Libery Bowl. Not a good thng for the Libery Bowl because Arkansas, being near Memphis,, could always bring lotsa fans.

   Instant replay has helped the sport immensly, but there are still holes in the system such as pass interference and motion. In one of the cowboy’s games recently, Jason Witten was called for “leaning” too much although replay in the TV booth showed he was not. “leaning” at all. One of the biggest ref goofs, other than the SMU game, which still has not had a real serious challenge for the greatest all time bad call, was in a Rose bowl game with USC on the 1 yard line with 4th and goal. The Woverines stopped the Trojans cold, but the refs gave USC the touchdown,. Replay showed that the neither the runner nor the ball reached the end zone and it was irrifutable evidence Even O.J. Simpson, a Trojan alumnus, in the TV booth, said that the ball never got near the goal line. Michigan lost the game on that call. But get this, the officials were from the Big Ten! So at least with the Mississppi game it was not quite that important. Yet.
8. BlindHog on October 29th, 2008 1:32 pm

   I thought it was the other way around. I thought that the SMU reciever was in front and slowed down when he saw the ball was uncatchable letting the defender run up his back and getting the call from the ref. I know he did admit after the game that it was his hope to draw the call.

   Refs are only human, some more than others, some, I’m sure, less principled than others. They have biases and expectations. I’m not sure how often that can be called intentional. We see the play repeated numerous times in slow motion. They make the call in a split second from yards away.

   Jimmy Dikes on pay per view actually anticipated the interference call after watching the play before he saw the replay. It may be time for replay to have a stronger hand. I can’t remember the pro game a couple of weeks ago that turned in the last minute on a fumble that was not allowed because a whistle had blown. It may be time to allow some form of video make up call where the other team is given the fumble but not the yardage of the return because the whistle was blown, stuff like that. They did overturn the onsides kick with evidence that was less than perfect.
9. ReasonRules on October 29th, 2008 4:17 pm

   Refs Suck
10. ReasonRules on October 29th, 2008 4:17 pm

    Two words that said it all.
11. HOGFAN23 on October 29th, 2008 5:29 pm

    Didn’t Haddock miss a field goal that would have given us enough to win?
12. ReasonRules on October 29th, 2008 6:10 pm

    Yes he did. He is 4 of 5 on the year.

    Point is an out of position ref shouldn’t make the call to decide the game. The ref right there looking at both players side to side didn’t even reach for his flag. The ref that made the call after the catch could only see the defender’s back fifteen yards away. I know, I was there. Any number of plays could have been made to win the game. You don’t want a ref making the play. You want the players making the plays.
13. hawgfan100 on October 29th, 2008 7:07 pm

    Amen.
14. BlindHog on October 29th, 2008 7:14 pm

    True.
15. GonzoHog on October 30th, 2008 10:26 am

    I hope I don’t get underneath anybody’s skin by saying this; First of all, I don’t blame any Hog fan for saying the line judge had no buisiness pulling out his flag.
    It’s not his call to make in that situation, especially on that play, but I did see the replay video and here’s what I came away with.

    Crawford take’s off down field, with Marshay picking up stride and drawing closer.
    Marshay exstends his right hand to make contact with Crawford well past the “5 yards downfield” limitation, but clearly did not hold or push Crawford.
    As Crawford extend’s his own right hand to the back of Marshay, which was more than likely to keep himself balanced, he made 3 slight pushes in a row, with the 3rd and last one being the most obvious, helping him gain position right before the catch.

    As far as I’m concerned, the call would have been a decent call either way, if it had been a no-call, or an offensive pass interference.
    Those refs down there right on top of the play may not have pulled a flag, which probably mean’s they would have left it a no-call play, but that doesn’t make it a bad call just because the line judge was the one who made it.
    The only thing I can figure on why didn’t the other two refs over-ride the line judges call, was because one of them probably agreed with him, making the play stand, but reguardless of who made it, it was not a bad call, since either way would have been a decent call.

    It’s way too easy to be a homer on this one, but I bet if you go over to one of Ole Miss’s blog sites, it’s not nearly as cut and dried as our fans are saying it is.
    As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite.
16. Hawgfan100 on October 30th, 2008 11:18 am

    It’s sad when you get screwed and the way you deal with it is: “Hey, it’s ok; I should get screwed.” I’ve never been that way and don’t intend to start now. I do try to be objective and succeed more often than not. The ref put himself in position to decide how the game would end and , for whatever reason, when the choice became No Call or Screw Arkansas, he chose the latter.

    This is not a situation in which there is more than one correct answer, Gonzo. Tell me something: if Crawford hadn’t put his hands out and had run into the DB, perhaps knocking him down while making the catch, would you be saying London was wrong to have done that also thus needing to be penalized? I think the receiver would be remiss in that case. Crawford had to make sure where the DB was while still making the catch and he did just that in the least egregious way possible. I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen this sort of contact go by the boards during a game. Why is this particular case any different? Because the ref decided he needed to be important. End of story.
17. BlindHog on October 30th, 2008 4:52 pm

    I’ve got to go with Hawgfan on this one. You know these refs study alot of film and review calls every week. This is not unlike SMU in one respect. The defender was running ahead of the reciever and slowed down which was the main reason for any contact. If you are a ref and study film, that has got to be a common situation that you prepare for and understand.

    You have to give Petrino credit. He figured out he had to use the jump ball with Casey if he was going to get a long completion. Smart move. Casey can’t hit ‘em in stride. This is a viable option with tall recievers. They can be coached to leap for the high point and leave the little defenders with no defense.

    The Ref was wrong.
18. T-towner on October 30th, 2008 8:55 pm

    One last comment about the SMU call. I was there and the Hog defender, seeing that the pass would land almost 15 yards beyond anyone, slowed and was plowed over completely by the SMU receiver. It was a gross injustice, to say the least. Little R was there too.
19. reasonrules on October 30th, 2008 10:53 pm

    Gonz

    Your intelligence humbles me (just slightly under our skin), however, the flag was thrown well after the catch and you indicate interference happened well before the catch. The ref right next to the play called nothing, never reaching for a flag or to scratch his but. It just doesn’t gel as far as reasoning goes. Was any significant advantage gained. London is fall taller and has far more jump ability and he caught the ball at the top of his leap arms straight up. Hey, 99 times out of a 100 it is a no call. For the home team, 100 out of a 100 in the SEC. Except here. I am not saying it is a conspiracy, just a bad call. My last post on this one, as I am looking forward to watching Gus, remembering about what might be with Mitch and Damien, seeing our defense step up (hope), then looking forward to next year with Ryan Mallet, Greg Childs, Joe Adams, Michael Smith and hopefully some immediate impact linemen on both sides of the ball. Oh and if Santa is good a big mean fullback.
20. GonzoHog on October 31st, 2008 11:10 am

    I guess what I should have said, was when you put your hands on a reciever’s back and apply any kind of pressure at all, your taking a chance on getting called for it, no matter who’s doing the calling.

    Everybody has an opinion. That’s why it’s called debating.

    I don’t like the line judge making the call any more than anyone else, but I still won’t say the call was obviously wrong.

    Look at it this way. If were putting the ball in the endzone, like we should be, then were not even having this discussion.
    Ole Miss would have been the team needing that kind of play.
    If it were them that got the so-called “screwing”, what would you be saying then?
    Would you be screaming “Hell ya, that was interference!!! Are you f#@*ing blind”?!!!
    Just out of curiosity, did anyone keep up with the bad calls the refs made on Ole Miss thoughout the game? I didn’t, but just wondering if anyone else did.

    It’s that kind of a year. Period. That’s what we need to accept.
21. Hawgfan100 on October 31st, 2008 2:42 pm

    “Would you be screaming “Hell ya, that was interference!!! Are you f#@*ing blind”?!!!”

    :^) No, but I have said something on the order of “Man, did we catch a break on that one.” Also, I’d be one of the first to step up and say we won because of it (note: I didn’t say I’d be in favor of giving the win back! :^), And I have paid much more attention to the calls the other teams get or don’t get, over say, the last ten years. The Hogs honestly do seem to be on the shitty end of the scale. It’s difficult for me though; I don’t get to actually see a lot of the games since i live in Georgia. However, in the age of YouTube, it’s not too difficult to get clips of anything you want to see if you’re patient. The same with this play.

    One other thing: it’s tough to be gracious when you watch your team get hammered with these sorts of calls on a consistent basis. It really is every year. I have a friend in Georgia who’s a big Dawg Fan (but who also went with me to the SEC Championship game vs. Florida attired in a Hog shirt bought specially for the occasion). At first he was skeptical, as he should be and many initially are, but he did as I asked and actually watched the games. He’s a convert now. When I called to talk over the Ol Miss game this past weekend, the first thing he said was, “That was a BS call on your receiver at the end of the game, huh?”
22. ReasonRules on October 31st, 2008 5:30 pm

    Gonzo,

    You should take on OBAMA, I am not that good of a debater, but I would like to remind you I was discussing one call, not every call. Do Officials make mistakes, did they make one in this instance? Yes.

    Two kinds of fans:

    One yells and screams and gets emotionally charged and intense.

    The one beside me is quiet, surreal and has his headphones on the entire game. He is the intellectual.

    I’m the first.
23. HogHead on November 4th, 2008 12:22 pm

    I never want ot be guilty of blaming the refs for a loss. If we correct our mental mistakes in the game we win. It’s just that simple.
24. Hawgfan100 on November 4th, 2008 6:42 pm

    It’s also this simple: if the ref keeps his laundry off the field we (probably) win.