Blocking Below Waist Questions
I don't like to complain about officiating, but we won and these are actually some legitimate questions.
So I saw it mentioned somewhere else that there was a rule change to prevent players outside of the tackle box from being cut down by a block below the waist.
The NCAA website says:
Offensive players in the tackle box at the snap who are not in motion are allowed to block below the waist legally without restriction. All other players are restricted from blocking below the waist with a few exceptions (for example, straight-ahead blocks).
So were these blocks on CB/Safeties legal because they straight on? Or were the refs just not calling it when they should have? I wouldn't put that past them based on the fact that they were seemingly following Arena Football rules about players in motion.
September 8th, 2012 at 8:47 PM ^
Whatever the hell they were doing, it was working.
September 8th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
September 8th, 2012 at 8:52 PM ^
I counted at least a handful of blocks from behind that were not called. Refs didn't do us any favors today but a win is a win.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
September 8th, 2012 at 9:50 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
Can anyone provide an explanation for this? I thought defensive holding was for when a defender prevents a WR from running their route by jamming or whatever more than 5 yds beyond the line of scrimmage.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:02 PM ^
Speaking of wtf penalties, what was up with the two holding calls on BWC? I was at the game so I couldn't see, but I don't think I've ever heard of a holding call on a d-lineman before...
September 9th, 2012 at 2:36 AM ^
I've seen holding on the D-lineman plenty of times, but it had to be pretty damned obvious, whchi it wasn't in both cases.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:08 PM ^
What the shit was going on with the refs and the clock dude at the end of the first half? I swear we got robbed of almost 20 seconds.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:12 PM ^
Clock management was all on Hoke. He had two timeouts and definitely should have called one on that play that sucked so much time off the clock.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:14 PM ^
But twice the clock started well before the chains were set on 1st downs. The first time this happened, the clock didn't even stop when we converted.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^
my seatmates thought it was starting when the ball was set. i think the downfield side of first down marker was also set when they did it, even though the other side was still getting there.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:42 PM ^
Hoke took clock management 101 this summer through a University of Les Miles online course.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
BWC was bad today against any block. Didn't matter if some obscure rule validated him.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:12 PM ^
I definitely saw him murder his dude several times; it just ended up not mattering because it was an outside option.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:23 PM ^
yea i agree with you but he was cut low way too often.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:16 PM ^
Did anyone notice in the first half that the H-back went in motion towards the line of scrimmage at least three times as the ball was about to be snapped? How is that not illegal motion?
September 8th, 2012 at 9:22 PM ^
He took off early on almost every shotgun snap when they were running the speed option.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:24 PM ^
Didn't you hear? Any time a triple option team is playing the refs allows CFL rules to keep it interesting.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:34 PM ^
There were several obvious illegal procedure infractions they missed. In the live blog, someone mentioned this isn't the Arena League...
- There one TD was aided by the H-Back going all arena league and getting to our secondary to chop his legs before the play even developed (whether the chop is legal or not I'll leave to more informed individuals).
- Then the critical play at the end of the game where the entire backfield went in motion at least a good 1/2 second before the snap. That allowed them to get to the edge for the first down and potential doom!
The officiating was ok for the most part but the lack of false starts on AFA was pretty bad. Also, since ESPN2's coverage was spectacular (snark snark cyan screen), we never got to see a replay of BWC's so called holding penalties. I can see one happening in a game, but 2 is either the officials or BWC being derp.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
I'm not going to defend ABC/ESPN, especially after losing the video feed in the final 3 minutes of the game, and switching us to the USC game rather than just giving us audio or any other kind of updates... but it's impossible to show replays when the offense on the field is playing hurry-up/no-huddle.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:43 PM ^
Their tempo was pretty fast all game.
September 8th, 2012 at 9:53 PM ^
on the illegal-motion-aided TD, kovacs was the guy that got chopped. it was total BS.
on campbell's second hold, he got chopped by the RG while the C was trying to release from him, and grabbed the dude's chestplate, essentially tackling him.
September 8th, 2012 at 10:15 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 6:35 AM ^
Still, even considering the shitty officiating, our D was unimpressive.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:12 AM ^
so i also saw the block in the back on my little replay machine, but i'm told blocks in the back are allowed along the line of scrimmage. does anybody know?
September 8th, 2012 at 9:17 PM ^
I've heard nothing about him. Is he injured? Just totally out of the mix?
September 8th, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
September 8th, 2012 at 9:31 PM ^
Whether they're against the rules or not, Michigan HAS to learn to deal with them. This has been an issue 5 years running, now.
September 8th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^
I feel like when we have those 6'+ corners as upperclassmen it won't be such a big deal. But frankly, there's not much you can do against a well excecuted cut block. Hell, we saw that happen on Denard's 87 yard ND run in 2010. And AF does A LOT of cut blocks. That's their WR's primary function. They're good at it.
September 8th, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^
I was one of the people yelling about it throughout the game. I know on at least 2 of the TDs, one of our players who would have had a shot at being in position to stop the TD, they were cut below the waist and it definitely didn't look straight on.
September 9th, 2012 at 5:25 AM ^
I thought the ball spots today were horrendous. It seemed like AF got an extra yard or two any time the ball went to the sideline and we got a yard less every times we went out of bounds. Maybe it was just my bias, but this seemed like a somewhat subtly badly officiated game. No huge blown calls, but a lot of little things that were let go. Except of course the guy in motion moving toward the line of scrimmage, that was not subtle at all.