Before I start, this post is going to come across as sour grapes, but it's really not. Because I'm not a Duck fan.
That's important to know. This national championship game was a no-win situation for me. It was either have Auburn win and never heard the end of it from annoying SEC fans, or have Oregon win and never hear the end of it from annoying Oregon Duck fans. It was like choosing between getting stabbed in the ear or getting stabbed in the balls. Trust me, neither scenario was ideal.
That's important to know. This national championship game was a no-win situation for me. It was either have Auburn win and never heard the end of it from annoying SEC fans, or have Oregon win and never hear the end of it from annoying Oregon Duck fans. It was like choosing between getting stabbed in the ear or getting stabbed in the balls. Trust me, neither scenario was ideal.
But I thought the Ducks would win this game. And they played a pretty good game, although very far from perfect. The biggest problem for the Ducks in that game and the reason they lost was because they don't have anyone on the team that, when it comes to goal line situations, can just punch the ball in instead of dancing around the goal line.
But Matt Hinton over at Yahoo! Sports brings up a very interesting point, about the play that pretty much single-handedly won the game for Auburn.
None of this really matters, because it's the official who didn't blow his whistle that blew it. But if you look at the rules (Auburn University doesn't seem to care much for them), seems like Oregon sorta got jobbed. In the photo above, you can clearly see that Dyer's wrist touches the ground as he rolled over the Oregon defender. As Hinton explains, this is what the actual rule says about when a player should be ruled down:
None of this really matters, because it's the official who didn't blow his whistle that blew it. But if you look at the rules (Auburn University doesn't seem to care much for them), seems like Oregon sorta got jobbed. In the photo above, you can clearly see that Dyer's wrist touches the ground as he rolled over the Oregon defender. As Hinton explains, this is what the actual rule says about when a player should be ruled down:
ARTICLE 3. A live ball becomes dead and an official shall sound his whistle or declare it dead: a. When it goes out of bounds other than a kick that scores after touching the uprights or crossbar, when a ball carrier is out of bounds, or when a ball carrier is so held that his forward progress is stopped. When in question, the ball is dead.
b. When any part of the ball carrier's body, except his hand or foot, touches the ground or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body, except his hand or foot. ...
What even adds more to the argument, is that just a few days prior, in the Sugar Bowl, an Arkansas player was ruled down when the very same thing happened, as you can see below.
In the picture on the left, the player was not ruled down, and in the picture on the right, he was. So there ya go. At least we can count on some sort of consistency with our paid officials, right?
Anyway, listen, nothing can change anything now, so it's pointless to dedicate too much time and space to writing about it. I just personally felt that, although it was a great, entertaining game those last few minutes, it also felt like a fluke. And I don't like when my football games end with a fluke. I don't think anyone does.
More articles about this topic here and here.
[ Dr. Saturday blog - Yahoo! Sports ]
