I've updated this post after finding video of the play shot from the end zone. Check it out. Block in the back? Certainly looks like it.
Missouri got away with one in its 27-24 victory over San Diego State. Watch the third play in this highlight package and you'll see the Tigers' game-winning 68-yard touchdown pass from Blaine Gabbert to T.J. Moe with 51 seconds remaining. You'll also see Missouri's Jerrell Jackson with a block in the back on San Diego State's Jose Perez near midfield.
The block sends Perez flying into linebacker Miles Burris, who was in pursuit of Moe. With both Aztecs out of the play, Moe has a free run to the end zone.
"They won the game so they must have deserved it, but I don't know if we had the full complement of officials," Aztec coach Brady Hoke told Kevin Gemmell of the San Diego Union-Tribune. "There weren't on that last play."
Hoke didn't want to make a big deal of the play, but was clearly irked by the non-call.
"I'm sure we got some [calls] and they got some," Hoke said. "But when that's the guy [the official] is supposed to be watching, I'd be watching him."
It was the second high-profile non-call of the weekend. Officials working the Notre Dame-Michigan State game appear to have missed the play clock expiring on the Spartans' fake field goal that resulted in the game-winning touchdown. On Sunday the Big East, whose officials worked the game, said its crew made the correct call.
"The conference believes that the game officials correctly applied the proper mechanics and guidelines that are in place to determine, in a consistent manner, when a flag should be thrown for delay of game," the Big East said in a statement.
OK, then. ...
there was no bock in the back, the SDSU players ran into each other
Posted by: Jtobur | September 20, 2010 at 03:48 AM
**block
Posted by: Jtobur | September 20, 2010 at 03:49 AM
Obviously it's hard to tell trying to pause and unpause a YouTube clip, but I've seen 100 replays of this play, and it honestly looks to me (a Missouri fan, admittedly) like the block comes on the side, and the tackler sprawls forward when he's trying to make a last-gasp tackle. That alone is disappointing because part of the narrative of that play from Mizzou fans' perspective is that Jerrell Jackson took them both out with one block, but ... all I can say is, if it was a block in the back, it was going to be VERY tough to call that in real time.
(Besides that, on Hillman's 93-yard touchdown run, he was clearly grabbed and slung forward by his offensive lineman, which is also illegal. We'll just say that these plays cancel out then.)
Posted by: Bill C. | September 20, 2010 at 04:50 AM
For what it's worth, I blew up the YouTube video and went frame by frame. Sure looks like a completely legal (and perfectly-executed) seal block to me.
http://www.rockmnation.com/2010/9/20/1699386/jerrell-jacksons-block-completely
Posted by: Bill C. | September 20, 2010 at 05:34 AM
I doubt that its "perfectly legal", but considering how much refs do miss in a given game, calling a flag on that would be much. And the rockmnation post isn't exactly frame-by-frame, and even the 3rd frame posted looks like the WR is pushing the defender in the back.
The way refs are supposed to call that is if there is unnatural forward movement, and here, the guy unnaturally runs into his own player, going forward. But it is slight, if a ref is so pedantic and flags everything of that magnitude, games would last 5 hours.
Posted by: yumtoad | September 20, 2010 at 07:26 AM
What Bill said... the help from the O-lineman on the 93-yarder doesn't need any slo-mo replay to be seen. Offsetting missed calls.
Posted by: Brian72975 | September 20, 2010 at 09:00 AM
There's film (if they even call it that anymore...) that shows a different angle of the block from the endzone camera. Anyone who says it was "clearly legal" is either lying or functioning under diminished mental capacities.
The only thing that can be said about that block is that no flag was thrown, therefore no penalty. It sure looked like a block in the back to me, but there was no flag on the field and the TD run was not called back. Yeah, Mizzou got away with one IMHO - but like the infamous 5th Down play and the ND/Michigan State game this one's in the books as a W for Mizzou. Right or wrong.
No point arguing about it, because the refs aren't going to come out on the field and restart the game.
Posted by: Zebra, Zebra Short and Stout... | September 20, 2010 at 06:58 PM
It was legal if you watch the frame-by-frame stills of the play. Jackson engages the receiver long before Moe gets there. Jackson engages him from the side (which is legal) and continues to engage him as Perez tries to spin away and make a play (which is about where you can see it on the moving video). This is legal. Please do full research and look up the rules before posting really ignorant items. But then again, if you did that, would anybody actually read your stuff?
Posted by: Robert | September 21, 2010 at 09:24 AM