Officiating

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

You really think that had the hands to the face call not been made on #58 that the Gophers wouldn't have scored a TD, gone up 21-3 with tons of momentum, and the game would have continued in a very different fashion thereafter?

A fellow fan pointed out that even if, by the rulebook, the hands to the face was to be called, that he same Wisconsin defender was grabbing Leidner by the facemask. At worst, given the evidence in those pics, that play should have been a redo instead of the huge penalty it was. Add on the missed delay call on the 70-yard pass just a few plays later, and the officials most definitely played a part in how the momentum all turned to Wisconsin.

You can argue that a great team would overcome those and win anyway. OK. But we all know that the Gophers aren't "great", and certainly not significantly better than Wisconsin by any measure; and even less so in Madison. So questionable or bad calls are amplified that much more when they go against an underdog away team.

Again, not saying that the Gophers didn't get any favorable calls or non-calls. But it's a tired and totally false argument to say that officials don't impact outcomes of games. They do. They always do; and we as sports fans just hope that their impact is such that they made all the right calls so that it was a totally fair game. Since they are human, we cannot expect that. Still, they DO very much affect game outcomes by way of human error, bias, or (hopefully) neither.

Being up 17-3 should have been enough to put us in the driver's seat. We had them right where we wanted them, then we inexplicably took our foot off the gas and never were able to get it back on the pedal.

 

[kellyleeks]

These refs were to the Gophers as Darren Wilson was to Mike Brown.

Hands up don't shoot

 

[MaxyJR1]

I guess you posted this to show that 58 did in fact get the facemask of the Wisconsin defender. One might also note that the Wisconsin defender also had his hands on Leidner's facemask.

Hand on the face mask is not a penalty. There needs to be a grasp, twist, or pull.

 

[cncmin]

Hand on the face mask is not a penalty. There needs to be a grasp, twist, or pull.

What about a push on the facemask of a guy one just owned with a perfectly legal block, who upon falling over after getting pizzowned, had his face fall into the blocker's hands, who was also falling over after being tripped up (legally) by the defender he just pizzowned?

 

[MaxyJR1]

What about a push on the facemask of a guy one just owned with a perfectly legal block, who upon falling over after getting pizzowned, had his face fall into the blocker's hands, who was also falling over after being tripped up (legally) by the defender he just pizzowned?

All legal until the grasp and pull.

 

[GophersInIowa]

View attachment 3185View attachment 3186View attachment 3187

Thanks. Can you find the one I was talking about that was significantly more obvious?

 

[MNVCGUY]

You really think that had the hands to the face call not been made on #58 that the Gophers wouldn't have scored a TD, gone up 21-3 with tons of momentum, and the game would have continued in a very different fashion thereafter?

A fellow fan pointed out that even if, by the rulebook, the hands to the face was to be called, that he same Wisconsin defender was grabbing Leidner by the facemask. At worst, given the evidence in those pics, that play should have been a redo instead of the huge penalty it was. Add on the missed delay call on the 70-yard pass just a few plays later, and the officials most definitely played a part in how the momentum all turned to Wisconsin.

You can argue that a great team would overcome those and win anyway. OK. But we all know that the Gophers aren't "great", and certainly not significantly better than Wisconsin by any measure; and even less so in Madison. So questionable or bad calls are amplified that much more when they go against an underdog away team.

Again, not saying that the Gophers didn't get any favorable calls or non-calls. But it's a tired and totally false argument to say that officials don't impact outcomes of games. They do. They always do; and we as sports fans just hope that their impact is such that they made all the right calls so that it was a totally fair game. Since they are human, we cannot expect that. Still, they DO very much affect game outcomes by way of human error, bias, or (hopefully) neither.

Well stated and there is no disputing that bad and missed calls play a roll in the outcomes of games. My issue is when fans try to add the element of intent to the missed calls and make it out that the officials intentionally made a bad call in order to favor the other team. We have a contingent of those kind of fans on this board that are under the impression that the officials are out to get us and that any bad call must have been intentional in order to screw us over. Those same fans are the ones that refuse to acknowledge that we also benefit from missed calls as well and only fixate on the missed ones as some kind of proof of their theory that the officials want us to lose and are doing it on purpose.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

You really think that had the hands to the face call not been made on #58 that the Gophers wouldn't have scored a TD, gone up 21-3 with tons of momentum, and the game would have continued in a very different fashion thereafter?

A fellow fan pointed out that even if, by the rulebook, the hands to the face was to be called, that he same Wisconsin defender was grabbing Leidner by the facemask. At worst, given the evidence in those pics, that play should have been a redo instead of the huge penalty it was. Add on the missed delay call on the 70-yard pass just a few plays later, and the officials most definitely played a part in how the momentum all turned to Wisconsin.

You can argue that a great team would overcome those and win anyway. OK. But we all know that the Gophers aren't "great", and certainly not significantly better than Wisconsin by any measure; and even less so in Madison. So questionable or bad calls are amplified that much more when they go against an underdog away team.

Again, not saying that the Gophers didn't get any favorable calls or non-calls. But it's a tired and totally false argument to say that officials don't impact outcomes of games. They do. They always do; and we as sports fans just hope that their impact is such that they made all the right calls so that it was a totally fair game. Since they are human, we cannot expect that. Still, they DO very much affect game outcomes by way of human error, bias, or (hopefully) neither.

The #58 facemask call changed momentumn but it did not completely Kill the drive. Gophers might not have scored a TD there as all assumed but the probability would have increased. To me the Gophers got to conservative with the playcalling after they went up 17-3. Instead of keeping there pedal on the gas, they kind of played in to what Wisconsin adjusted to on defense and got really tight and went in to almost a shell to end the half and protect the lead. The only way they were going to win was to keep putting up points and touchdowns. The play calling especially the one that caused the fumble, that should have been call a straight roll out boot to strong side, Mitch could have executed that, everyone on Wisky was crashing on Cobb at the point, Mitch saw it but to late pulling the ball out to late, instead of the read play they should have call a play action with the boot and Mitch sprinting out with Maxx on a shallow cross, either Leidner goes or dumps the ball off for a big play as they were slanted to Cobbs side of the run. The play that turned the football game was the fumble and lost points opportunity at the end of the half, the series where the Gophers were wasting a lot of time because they didn't want to put Wisconsin's offense back on the field. We expected to get hosed by the officials before the game everyone knew that would be part of the deal going in but the fumble with the late pullback by Mitch killed all Gopher momentumn at that point.