Let's look closer...The officiating was horrible

[RU62]

The overall officiating for both was poor. Several stoppages for apparent spearing all of which were waved off and took a lot of rhythm out of the game. A couple of the late hit calls were very questionable and were on both teams. The call on Grant was another. Again it wasn't as if one team was favored as both teams were hurt by questionable calls and game stoppages for reviews.

And of course the one at the end which took is out of a potential game tying FG was ridiculous. This is similar to an over officiated foul call during the last 10 seconds of a basketball game. Let them play unless something is flagrant. In this case I am sure this is why Ash commented about having to see the game tapes and refrained from saying anything else.

What also hurt was the 4q interception. While we fortunately blocked the FG attempt we lost valuable time. I thought the appropriate call then would have been a run to keep the drive going as it was 3rd down and <3 and we really had 2 downs to make the yardage.

Does anyone know from what conference this group was from?

 

[JCKnight]

The overall officiating for both was poor. Several stoppages for apparent spearing all of which were waved off and took a lot of rhythm out of the game. A couple of the late hit calls were very questionable and were on both teams. The call on Grant was another. Again it wasn't as if one team was favored as both teams were hurt by questionable calls and game stoppages for reviews.

And of course the one at the end which took is out of a potential game tying FG was ridiculous. This is similar to an over officiated foul call during the last 10 seconds of a basketball game. Let them play unless something is flagrant. In this case I am sure this is why Ash commented about having to see the game tapes and refrained from saying anything else.

What also hurt was the 4q interception. While we fortunately blocked the FG attempt we lost valuable time. I thought the appropriate call then would have been a run to keep the drive going as it was 3rd down and <3 and we really had 2 downs to make the yardage.

Does anyone know from what conference this group was from?

That last paragraph has nothing to do with officiating...interesting to include that in this post...

Let's not blame the refs that we were even in a close enough game to let the Refs have any impact with a team that we PAID almost $900k to get a win from...

 

[DennisHajekRC84]

The officials WERE terrible on both sides...but in the end not the reason for the loss.

 

[HPNJRUfan]

Agree that the officials were horrible but not the reason for the loss.

I did notice though, it seems as if the Referee was replaced at halftime? Was a different guy 1st half and second half. Have never seen that before.

 

[DennisHajekRC84]

Agree that the officials were horrible but not the reason for the loss.

I did notice though, it seems as if the Referee was replaced at halftime? Was a different guy 1st half and second half. Have never seen that before.

was it the guy who stopped Grant's punt return (where they had to make up 2 calls like in that TV commercial)?

 

[Mr Magoo]

We were playing an average MAC team at home. It should never come down to the last minute. That is really the problem.

 

[retired711]

II am too casual a fan to have ever before known about the "waving" rule that got Grant. Is this new? Does the rule make sense? If everyone knows that you can call a fair catch only by putting your hands above your head, then will they really be fooled by handwaves that don't do that?

 

[RU#1fan]

The Backfield Ref should be fired this morning.
He wore the B .
Saw TE Washington get mugged right in front of him, No Flag.
Saw the block in the back on the Punt (5 yards directly in front of him), No Flag. In fact a Ref far away from the play threw the flag.
Ash was giving him grieve on the sidelines.

He was either being paid by EMU or totally a booster of their program.

 

[Caliknight]

Refs were God awful.

 

[albanyknight]

You do not allow an illegal hands to the face that has zero to do with the play decide a game.

 

[RU-05]

II am too casual a fan to have ever before known about the "waving" rule that got Grant. Is this new? Does the rule make sense? If everyone knows that you can call a fair catch only by putting your hands above your head, then will they really be fooled by handwaves that don't do that?

It was the first I heard of it.

But it does make sense imo. And after it was explained it was clearly the right call.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

You often see guys doing the crossing X motion on short punts to tell their players to stay away.. I had no idea that this motion prevents the ball from being able to be advanced. You don't often see anyone try that.. but the idea that any motion with the arm can be interpreted as a fair catch signal is just stupid.. later that game we saw an EMU guy using his arms for balance while making his way to a punted ball and his arms were waving much more than Grant did.

Clearly the ref made a huge mistake... because his call was illegal fair catch signal.. as if Grant was trying to trick the defense into letting up so he could take off with the ball.. if the ref's call was that he made the crossing motion killing the ball dead.. that would have been fair. But we all know those offsetting penalties was just a way to hide the official's mistake.

I do think that call was to prevent Grant from returning it. On several occasions those officials made suspicious calls. In this day and age I could certainly believe one or more of them had bets on the game. I don't know that is the case.. but those calls and non-calls were highly suspicious. Not that it should have ever came to that.

 

[WGLTAUD]

Doesn't matter if the officiating was horrible... should have never been a factor in this game.

 

[cohwx]

If you're in a position where you need a last minute FG to tie a game at home against a MAC team...then officiating wasn't the problem (even though it did suck).

 

[RU62]

I guess several people underestimate our opponents. In doing so you set yourself up for disappointment. Yes we were favored 4-5 points and in most cases you usually get 3 points for playing at home. I am not ready to throw in the towel over a sluggish game we could have and should have won. Now let's see how the team and staff bounce back this week and what adjustments are made to get back on track. It will also be interesting to see the progress of East Michigan during the season. Oddly Morgan State now becomes a bigger game than many of us anticipated. It is difficult to digest but it's there.

 

[WGLTAUD]

Eastern Michigan should not be out recruiting any Big Ten School. This is a matter of inferior coaching.

This team went 7-6 in the MAC last year.

I don't care about the progress of Eastern Michigan.

Saying that Morgan State has become a bigger game than we anticipated makes my brain hurt. Explain how it's big or important in any sense? If we win, what happens? We go 1-11 instead of 0-12? So what? If not, what happens?