🏈 After reading an article

[rammerjammer]

I saw where Bama received a total of 3 penalties in the MSU game.

No offensive penalties. With so much crap revolving around officiating in the SEC I got to thinking. When Javier made the "fair catch" according to the referee, I was listening on the radio. Eli and Phil said that the ball bounced and that Javy picked it up and started to run. I understand the fact that him waving off players can be mistaken for the fair catch call. Phil stated the fact that it was a moot point because after the ball bounced on the ground that he could take off if he wanted to. The ball touching the ground should have negated the fair catch call and he could run if he wanted to.

If that is the case, then somebody needs to jerk a knot in the officials rear-end. This is not a bang-bang type of mistake. The waving off of team mates being mistaken for a fair catch I can understand, not knowing the rules is pathetic, if what Phil stated is true.

 

[JoshB]

Well, to my knowledge if you fair catch it then u can't run with it regardless. I may be wrong though. I just dont see how they could mistake him waving off his teammates for a fair catch, it wasnt even close.

 

[rammerjammer]

After doing a bit of research, found this article. Explains everything very well, and it looks like the refs were right on. Actually they made a dang good call.

 

[Victory]

Man, if Javy can't get some luck, he's not gonna break the record. I don't think we realize how many things have went wrong for him not to have broken that record by now. We seem to get a lot of penalties on punt returns.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

It was one of the better officiated games I've seen this season... only obvious missed calls that I recall were on a couple of blocks in the back on some KO returns. They did a very good job on Barron's 2nd INT... it was tough to tell if that was a trap or not live in HD.

In other news, I so much prefer the combo of Nessler and Blackledge on ESPN to Verne and Danielson on CBS. Not only do they call a much better game, but it goes smoother without the commercial breaks after every whistle. The fact that ESPN has Erin Andrews on their broadcast and not Tim Brando is just icing on the cake.

 

[ExiledTidefan]

I'm with you Porter. The combo of Blackledge and Nessler is among the best that ever do our games. Let's face it: there are people who are in their jobs who just do them well, and people who are in jobs that just don't. Lundquist's time has come to step aside and let young blood handle it. Danielson is clearly strong in his understanding of X's and O's, but can't be impartial during a game, and certainly can't let his own personal feelings about things not cloud his broadcast. It just isn't professional at times.

People bag on the job the guys at CTSN do, but they simply don't have the professional broadcasting pedigree. The video isn't as strong, though improved, either. Hard to compete with people who've been doing it so long, such as ESPN/ABC.

I also happen to enjoy the FSN coverage of USC and other Pac 10 football.

 

[LBS]

I suppose I see the logic in ruling a "get away" signal as an invalid "fair catch" signal, in that a visual signal (i.e. wave a hand above the head of otherwise" requires being seen and if his blockers are looking at him then they are not looking at would-be tacklers, thus a return effort is most certainly abandoned prior to the g"get away" warning.

It still begs the questions "How can a Punt Returner legally communicate his desire to have his blockers stay away from a punt that he intends to return, without having the ball ball ruled dead on contact?" Also, what flavor of hell would have broken loose if Javi had muffed that catch only to have LSU recover it?" Or, "What would be the call if the ball would have bounced and hit one of our blockers?"...which was one of the concerns driving Javi calling off his blockers in the first place.