NFL Week 8 – Parity NFL Style: 7 Good Teams, 7 Bad Teams, 18 about.500; Replay Officials Keep Iowa In BCS Hunt

By: dwil

First, kudos to ESPN for their Sunday Outside the Lines segment on Tom Cable. The Oakland Raiders head coach has an obvious history of abuse, toward women and now his assistant coach, Randy Hansen, who claims Cable broke his jaw.

——————————

Next up, boo to ESPN for failing to show the horrific Big Ten replay booth official’s calls during Saturday’s Indiana-Iowa game. On one touchdown the on-field referee called the pass incomplete, but replays clearly showed the Hoosiers receiver caught the ball and was pulling it into his stomach but never lost control of the ball. On the second gross error an Indiana receiver clearly caught a touchdown pass with his right in the end zone before his knee touched out of bounds. The on-field official was no more than 15 feet from the play and ruled it a touchdown. But as Indiana was about to kick the extra point, the replay booth official interceded and stopped play. He then overturned the call of the on-field referee.

Had the booth officials not cheated the Hoosiers out of two TDs they would have been up 35-14 going into the fourth quarter rather than 24-14. The turn of events allowed Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz to hold QB Ricky Stanzi – who threw four third quarter interceptions – to only three fourth quarter pass attempts. The Hawkeyes were not forced to change their game plan, ran the ball, and ran away with a 42-24 win.

However, ESPN began all their Indiana-Iowa game highlights Saturday with the score 24-14, never showing the replay booth errors. CBS, on the other hand, began its highlights with the score 21-7. And each ESPN NCAA commentator mentioned Iowa’s “resilience,” as if highlight show producers fed them all the same line.

Then, to compound the issue, Associated Press reporter, Luke Meredith, only briefly mentioned one of the incidents, again choosing to lead readers to believe the Hawkeyes came back to win without the aid of officials:

The Hoosiers appeared to have answered on a TD grab by Terrance Turner in the corner of the end zone, but the call was overturned by video and Nick Freeland missed a 28-yard field goal.

The game was strange right from the start—perfect these cardiac Hawkeyes on Halloween.

Iowa deferred on the opening kickoff, a rarity under Ferentz, and the Hoosiers marched 69 yards into the wind for a 7-0 lead on Darius Willis’s 4-yard run.

Ryan Donahue, one of the most reliable punters in the nation, shanked an 8-yarder into the stands midway through the second quarter, giving the Hoosiers the ball at the Hawkeyes 35. Five plays later, Chappell found Mitchell Evans for a 16-yard TD pass that made it 14-0.

The Hawkeyes answered on Wegher’s 4-yard TD run with 2:39 left in the first half, but after holding Indiana, Amari Spievey inexplicably picked up a wobbly punt and fumbled it away deep in his own territory. Chappell found Damarlo Belcher for a 9-yard TD with 9 seconds left.

It was a brutal end to the first half for Iowa, and a brutal end to the game for Indiana.

Meredith’s portrayal of the events does not begin to touch on the how deeply the two calls altered the outcome of the game.

Even Indianapolis Star writer, Terry Hutchens, stopped short of scalding the replay booth officials:

Several calls clearly didn’t go IU’s way. Referee Ron Torbert appeared to spend as much time communicating with the officials in the review booth as he did officiating the game. Five calls were reviewed, with the Hoosiers coming out on the short end of four, two of them on would-be touchdowns.

On two occasions, Chappell appeared to throw touchdown passes to wide receiver Terrance Turner. On the first, the official said Turner did not get a foot down and maintain control of the ball. On the second, the official said Turner made the reception for the touchdown, but a booth review overturned the ruling, despite questionable video evidence to the contrary.

When the first one was ruled no touchdown, IU still scored a TD on the next play when Chappell hit Belcher on a 9-yard pass to make it 21-7 with nine seconds remaining in the half.

The touchdown that was overturned was particularly costly, however, when Nick Freeland missed a 28-yard field goal on the next play.

Had number four-ranked Iowa lost, the Big Ten would have no teams within reach of a BCS Bowl game for the first time since the system’s inception. However, the Big Ten conference winner would probably be granted a Rose Bowl berth, which is a BCS game, over a more deserving school. The ensuing wails of disapproval of placing an inferior Big Ten team in a BCS game would have surely landed the BCS schools in front of Congress and perhaps in court.

Instead, it appears the NCAA will get away with its cheating ways unscathed yet again.

———————————-
Onto the NFL…

Carolina 34 (3-4), Arizona (4-3) 21. Arizona blew a chance to gain a two-game stranglehold on the NFC West by failing to understand that Carolina wanted revenge for last season’s playoff defeat at the hands of the Cardinals.

Dallas (5-2) 38, Seattle (2-5) 17. The Cowboys are hitting their stride. Seattle is just getting hit.

Baltimore (4-3) 30, Denver (6-1) 7. Ahhhh, back to earth for the Broncos.

Houston (5-3) 31, Buffalo (3-5) 10. T.O. can no longer say the Bills are only a couple of plays away from being undefeated.

Chicago (4-3) 30, Cleveland (1-7) 6. Derek Anderson went 6-17 for 76 yards and two INTs for a QB rating of a whopping 10.5.

St. Louis (1-7) 17, Detroit (1-6) 10. The Rams had Stephen Jackson and the Lions did not.

Indianapolis (7-0) 18, San Francisco (3-4) 14. If this game is played on grass the Niners win. The Colts’ was the most turf-aided defensive performance in recent memory.

Miami (3-4) 30, New York Jets (4-4) 25. After the game Rex Ryan said his team outplayed the Dolphins. And Bush League Bart Scott sardonically said Miami was “loaded across the board.” Look fellas, Miami swept you. Give the team their props and move on. As it stands, you look like chumps. And maybe that’s why you can’t win even when your rookie QB doesn’t make critical mistakes.

Philadelphia (5-2) 40, New York Giants (5-3) 17. With their injuries on defense catching up to them and with the loss of Plaxico Burress becoming more and more apparent, the G-Men are in trouble. And to think just last week people were complaining about bad how the Eagles looked, even though they won. Now they hand a 40-Burger on the Giants and with Dallas, look like the class of the NFC East.

San Diego (4-3) 24, Oakland (2-6) 16. The Chargers visibly took their foot off the gas against Oakland but still had enough in reserve to stop JaMarcus Russell from mounting a late-game comeback at their expense.

Tennessee (1-6) 30, Jacksonville (3-4) 17. Vince Young can do so much more than Kerry Collins.

Minnesota 38, Green Bay 26. The Packers offensive line is going to let Aaron Rodgers get killed this season, if they’re not careful. And —- how about that Fav-ray fella! and how about Adrian Peterson and the Vikings wideouts, and the Minnesota defense.

—————————————–

Monday Night

New Orleans at Atlanta. Matt Ryan pulls up the Falcons express into The Big Easy. Unless Atlanta’s defense carries the evening, it’s going to be a long night for Atlanta.

Tags: aaron rodgers, adrian peterson, arizona, atlanta, bcs bowl, big ten, bowl game, cardinal, chargers, cheating, chicago, cleveland, coach k, colts, comeback, congress, dallas, defense, denver, derek anderson, detroit, dolphins, football, halloween, head coach, highlights, image, interception, interceptions, jamarcus russell, matt ryan, miami, new orleans, new york, new york giants, new york jets, nfc east, oakland, oakland raiders, officials, outside the line, philadelphia, plaxico burress, referee, rookie, san diego, san francisco, seattle, stephen jackson, undefeated, vince young, yahoo

Share This Article

4 Comments

1. Is this actually a “Sports news” column, or just a commentary bog?
   Because fronm reading it, I’d say it’s just a guy who doesn’t like the Big Ten and in particular, Iowa.
   We have this Mantra, in High School Sports…and it ought to extend to College and beyond. …
   Know who you are, and responsibly accept your role.
   In other words,
   Let us be certain that:
   Fans are fans.
   Parents are parents.
   Althetes are athletes.
   Officials are officials.
   Coaches are coaches.

   We can happily add, news is news and opinion is opinion….and at the end of the day, awin is a win, a loss is a loss, & opinion doesn’t matter.

   Comment by OFan on November 2, 2009

2. And “crooked confrences are crooked confrences”. The Big12 did it to Texas vs OU. And Tennessee beat alabama but not the Zebras. I love my horns but I would have rather seen them beat OU without help. Too much money at stake. Utah, Boise, TCU, Cincy, yall win can all your games but the BCS party is “members only”
   “Hookem Horns”

   Comment by tom on November 2, 2009

3. The Big10 officials just make it too obvious.

   Comment by tom on November 2, 2009

4. Hey Ofan, maybe he is just a guy who wants integrity in college sports. I could care less about iowa or indy but I saw 5 horrible calls. 2 touchdowns, 2 drive sustainers (iowa) and 1 drive ender (indy).
   What your saying Ofan is just shut-up and take it up the &^$%&! I bet you love Obama too.

   Comment by rick on November 2, 2009

Comment On This Article

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website