Excellent post. And you are, I believe, the first to mention anything about the SUU's QB's cadence. After the second offsides, I expounded to the folks around me that there had to something about the cadence that was throwing the defense off.FireGriz said:hunt-ducks said:What a freaking embarrassment we witnessed on the field today. This team had 12 penalties for 125 yards, 4 personal fouls, 5 off-sides penalties (two on 4th down giving SUU a first down), and 4 more penalties which were refused by SUU!
Total lack of discipline from these kids. Has the coaching staff lost this team? The team plays tight, and whines to the refs after every call. An ugly win is much too kind term for the debacle we watched today.
The defensive offsides were bad. Whatever the SUU QB was doing with his cadence was working. Kudos to him, and I hope the linemen enjoy their run to the M.
2 of the unsportsmanlike penalties were just bad calls. Ford's penalty for reacting after getting the business done to him out of bounds on the first offensive snap following his TD is bush league officiating. Robbie getting one for vehemently disagreeing with a bad judgement call by yet another out of position big sigh official is just as bad. Neither player should have been flagged in either situation and to assess unsportsmanlike on the play was just bad officiating.
The late PI call in the red zone was another objectively bad call. From every angle, that's at the very worst equal hand fighting between two players competing for a ball. To throw that flag from across the field is bad. There is no way the official from that distance and at that angle could have had a better view than the 2 officials that were closer and didn't throw a flag.
This isn't a 'total lack of discipline'. That's absurd. This is a team that consistently (for the last 3 weeks) has received substandard officiating. These things happen, it isn't some nefarious scheme to screw Montana, but it's glaringly obvious that the referee crews have struggled mightily the last few weeks. I hope they are able to perform better in the coming weeks, because these athletes deserve better.
There is nothing to suggest that the staff has 'lost the team'. That's just your dislike of Bobby Hauck biasing your already questionable viewpoint. Be better.
We all agree it was an ugly game, and I too firmly believe the bad officiating contributed to it.