In Case You Missed It

No pun intended for what you are about to read when it comes to "missing" things.

No, I'm not talking about Instant Replay in Oregon. Those officials were terrible. Off the record...ah heck, let's keep this for the record: You're dang right I'm glad it happened to Oklahoma.

But anyway, speaking of bad calls, and this may be the most obsured you've ever heard happen Adam.

Friday night: USA v CC at USA.

USA just scored a TD and kicked off to CC. The ball banked off the chest of the CC returner harder than Nathan Fritz attempting a layup in Basketball. So the ball bounced in front of the returner and he was going after it, just like the USA kick coverage team was racing to get to the ball before him. Well, like a typical fumble, there was a big pile. It appeared the CC returner got to the ball first, but it also appeared a USA player recovered the ball. But, like I say, it was a typical fumble where you don't really know for sure what happened, plus, we were in the stands on the USA 35 yard line. It happened on our sideline, but at the CC 20 yard line.

So the officals all got together like normal to determine who will get the ball. So, what did the officals decide? I'll give you multiple choice.

A. Cass City ball
B. USA ball

Errrrr (buzzer sound). That is incorrect. The correct answer is neither.

They decided to just kick the ball off again. A freakin' Do-Over? According to the Chronicle, the referees ruled that no team had control of the ball before an inadvertent whistle, which resulted in a do-over. Inadvertent whistle my tail. Personally, I think USA got screwed and this all happened near the USA sideline. (Note: On the do-over kickoff, since USA got screwed, there was a "blocking" penalty against CC. Hmmm. I'll bet.)

Then later in that same 2nd quarter, USA threw a 25 yard TD that appeared to be an incomplete pass. Again, we were 75 yards away, but it sure looked like a drop. In fact, I can't even use the word "drop" because that would mean he actually had the ball in order to drop it. If you never had possession of something, it's impossible to drop it. It basically had just enough time to hit both his hands (without dropping it, mind you) and then FALLING (not dropping) to the ground. The referees ruled he had the ball long enough. Rumor has it the officals didn't actually see what happened and by the time they looked (since he was so wide open and it was a perfect pass) they just assumed he caught the ball. Like I mentioned, it was difficult to see the play because...well, let me set it up for you.

CC just got done punting or whatever and USA got the ball on the CC 25 yard line. There was less than 1 minute in the first half remaining. ON THE VERY FIRST PLAY, Bitzer (Brandon) dropped back to pass and everyone in the stands could see this was going to be a TD. Which is why we didn't see the "drop" very well because EVERYONE in the stands stood up waiting to exploded with gayness. And because the guy was so wide open and it was right to him, everyone knew he was going to catch it. But with everyone standing up and the receiver running to the corner of the endzone, I seen it hit his hands, assumed he caught it, blinked, and then seen it falling to the grass. And then I noticed the referees signaling a TD. I thougth they would at least talk about it to see if he had it long enough. Nope. I still didn't believe my eyes, so I just so happened to turn my head to look at the scoreboard to see how much time was left and I saw the USA score changing...28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.

I hope that painted a good enough picture for you. But I'll throw this at you. I was at the game with Fritz and the gang as well and after what we all just saw minutes ago with the "do-over" kickoff, we were making fun of the refs on what they would call this time. Fritz thought we were just joking around. After seeing the highlights on TV-5, I called Fritz to see if he saw the "drop."

Quote:
Haag: "Did you see the pass they called a TD on the news?"
Fritz: "What are you talking about?"

Fritz didn't even know they called that a TD. Keep in mind, this was after the game at 11:30 pm and he still thought it was a drop.

News 5 was there and showed it on TV but the sports guys did the highlight reel like it was no big deal. If I was the Sports Anchor (since the USA/CC game was the lead highlight) I think I'd question what I just saw. He blew over it like someone in his earpiece threated his wife and kids. News 5 used to keep the video on the net so you could watch from your computer, but they don't do that anymore, or else I'd suggest you watch it on video for yourself.