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.

:^) 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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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'.