When asked about the last play in Saturday’s loss to North Carolina in which replay officials ruled Michael Floyd fumbled with UNC recovering, here is what Charlie Weis had to say at his Sunday presser.
Here’s what I thought had happened. I thought they pulled him down with three or four seconds to go. We were then going to spike the ball. When we spiked the ball they had 12 guys on the field. So even if there was one second to go, it would have been a 12-men on the field penalty on them, and we would have gotten one more play.
Okay, in reality, what happened is they got buzzed. This is from what I understand. They got buzzed before we spiked the ball and ruled that the ball was out and they recovered the ball, and that was it.
You know, what good does it do for me — I mean, I sat there and watched the play 50 times this morning myself. In none of those 50 times did I have the answer to the test. I mean, was it out? Was his shoulder down? Was his shoulder down? To this time, I don’t know that.
The only problem I have with that is if I couldn’t tell after watching it 50 times and the ruling was that he’s down, then, you know, maybe there’s a TV copy or something that has a better look at it than what I watched.
But I’m not going to sit there and whine about it and take away from their win and our loss. I’m just saying from my perspective, I just find it tough to believe with as little evidence as I was able to see, that there’s enough evidence to overrule it.
But you could flip back a minute and a half earlier. You know, you go the other way, you can go a minute and a half earlier where they have that catch that is a non-catch and say was there evidence that the ball is out early or not? I don’t know that either, you know.
So there’s nothing I can do about it after the fact. It’s just rationally thinking, I have a tough time imagining how it could have gone the way it did.
The best point that Weis makes is that he couldn’t definitively see the ball come out before Floyd was down. When I first saw the play, I thought it was going to be one of those plays where however it was ruled on the field was what the call would end up being. As I’ve said before though, it’s a shame we were even in that position in the first place. In looking at the stats tonight, ND held a 10:26 to 4:34 time of possession advantage in the fourth quarter alone, but couldn’t translate that into any points.
Unfortunately, no one asked Weis about the 3rd and 18 conversion when it looked as though Hakeem Nicks fumbled the ball before he hit the ground with Robert Blanton recovering. I would have liked to hear Weis’s thoughts on the play as well as why he didn’t challenge the play. It might have been a different game if we had the ball at midfield up 8 points…
I know, I know, shouldda, couldda, wouldda. It’s going to be a long two weeks till the Washington game.
I think the last play was handled poorly too. I still can’t figure out what the officials were doing. But, the bottom line is that ND wouldn’t have been in that do or die position without the 4 prior turnovers. That cannot happen EVER if you expect a win.
Alot of positives came out of the game too – our skilled players seem to be growing up in a hurry and the lines seem to be improving slowly.
More lessons learned and I think 5-turnover games like that will become more and more unlikely as the team grows…
Go Irish
I didn’t think the calls were that bad as calls go, although I still think ND did get gift which we should have taken advantage of. Trust me ND’s been screwed more times than the other way around. I saw too many in Holtz’s first two years. He took reffing out of the picture in his next 6 seasons by pounding most of ND’s opponents into the ground.
But I’d like to see this same ABC crew handle an ND USC game at the end of the year and eat it when the Irish figure out what Oregon State did and beat those non-students.
Just so everyone knows, we didn’t get a gift on the call before. If you’re in the air when you catch the ball and drop the ball when you hit the ground that is an incomplete pass. You have to make a football move. They got that call right but they completely screwed the final play on so many levels I can’t even talk about it because it makes me to angry.
There’s a new rule this year that allows fumbles to be reviewed when they result in immediate recovery as in Blanton’s play, but not in the Floyd play when the ball’s being chased 10 yards downfield.
The Blanton fumble was also an non-re viewable play, that’s why Charlie didn’t challenge it. The player for UNC was called down immediately by the line judge at the top of the screen on the film of the game. He even gets pissed at Blanton and snatches the ball from his hands in a manner basically telling Blanton to shut up. Maguire made a smart-ass comment about the play too for ABC that really irked me. I can’t stand that guy.
Frankie,
I’d love to get a better look at that Blanton fumble recovery. On the broadcast they had one quick replay look from one angle that made it look like it was a clear fumble. But unlike the dissection the broadcast crew made of every other call (where the replays supported the UNC cause), they didn’t want to touch that one. I wonder why?
OC Domer
K9KEV9,
You are right about Davis. He is the only past Miami coach who tried to maintain control on that program. Both Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erikson either promoted, or allowed violations of NCAA rules and/or US laws. Their players didn’t truly take college classes. (Ask CBS’ Dan Rather who ran an expose ). But Davis surely seemed to be a different character and so far has proven he knows how to solidly steadily build a team. It’ll be interesting to see if UNC becomes a dominant ACC team.
As for Weis, I think they played a good game, but in light of the fact that he didn’t challenge the one fumble as Frankie V. said, why talk about the other one som much. The Irish were handed a gift to get to that point in the first place. Bob Griese can stick it, as I’m sure he is a Catholic hater, but he was right in the other replay.
Weis needs to focus on why they lost the game. Turnovers. And how many times has a QB come out early in the 2nd half and thrown that out in the flat ball only to have it picked off. I would not allow that play to even be called until some sort of rythm is established. Very dangerous when you aren’t sure what adjustments are being made.
On a different note…
Did anyone see Chuckie Davis after the game? I have real trouble saying this b/c I was part of the “Catholics vs Convicts” rivalry w/U.Miami and Chuckie coached the Canes. But he was extremely gracious. ND should keep an ete on him as a successor to Weis.
If Floyd was down or not, the fact is the ball was spotted by the ref at the 7 and ruled down. From there, a fumbled is not even reviewable. They could check the spot and make sure it was a completed pass, but once a player is ruled down you can’t review for a fumble that is recovered 10 yards upfield three seconds later. If Floyd hadn’t been ruled down, and the play blown dead, then why would the ref immediately mark it at the seven?