King ralphie won't be happy

[ISUclones33]

for the record, the ball WAS set... it takes time for the back and field judge to get in position underneath the goalpost ESPECIALLY since they didnt know what colorado was gonna do.. spike it.. kick it.. heck colorado didnt even know what they were doing, the WR that caught the ball stood over there and looked at the ref for 5 seconds before he realized that the field goal unit was coming on. Think about it. 17 seconds left when your WR hits the ground. clock ticking,, offense on field for 5 seconds confusion, field goal unit comes out.. refs try to get set. 4 seconds left CU line is set ball is snapped at 1 second remaining..... it was a good call. face it buddy.. go beat nebraska and go to a bowl and quit ********

[theshadow]

:17 at the start of the play.
:12 when James Smith made the tackle.

[Big12Fan]

Hawkins could have opted to kick the 51-yarder (Eberhart has the leg, yes?) on 3rd down with no timeouts, but he didn't. And you lost because the receiver didn't get out of bounds.

Agree 100%

Welcome back King Ralphie! Dang!

[herbiedoobie]

Probably thought I wouldn't show my face, but hey, it's a momentous occasion, I had to.

I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear this, but I'm not at all satisfied with the Big XII's explanation of Saturday's events, not yet at least. They are welcome to explain that the calls on the field were technically within the rulebook, as they did.

What they failed to explain was how it took a referee 15 seconds to put a ball on a field and blow a whistle. What they failed to explain was why officials typically take less than 5 seconds to set the ball in a firedrill field goal situation, but in this game the officials took 3 times that long (and clearly would have happily taken longer, were it not for the fact that the game would have ended). What they failed to explain was why a former player from Nebraska is allowed to officiate games within Nebraska's conference, let alone in games featuring Nebraska's rival school (note: CU/NU is a rivalry game, NU/ISU is not).

For the record, Blakeman has officiated 2 games that CU played in this year, ISU and KSU - the ending of the Iowa State game was so horrifically managed that it sticks out in the mind a little bit more, but the Kansas State game was perhaps the most unfairly officiated contest I have ever seen in my life (among other glaring errors, CU had an 80 yard kickoff return nullified by a holding penalty that was called from 35 yards away, replays of the play showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the player who was flagged did nothing even remotely resembling holding during that return).

So you have your victory in the sense that the calls made on the field were technically within the rules of the game, but that does not change the fact that there was no justification for the first call to have been made in the first place. Put a competent 7 year old on the field in that situation and the ball would have been set with 10 seconds to spare; put an incompetent Fusker on the field and it'll take at least twice that long.

Just further proof that you get the education that you pay for at Nebraska... assuming of course that you pay 4 cents per semester for your tuition.

May the deluge of negative rep begin...

It "might" have took awhile, because your d-bag players threw the ball, and took too long to get set.

Queen Ralphie whining that its team isn't allowed to cheat and rules-lawyer. Don't you have some granola to eat, or a sit-in protest to attend, smoking your weed?

[jbhtexas]

LittleRalphy,

You're right! The game film clear shows NU AD Tom Osborne on the grassy knoll using mental telapathy to prevent the official from setting the ball down and blowing the whistle in a timely manner. Then, on the FG retry, the game film clearly shows Osborne using some Star Trek-like device to manipulate the game clock so that the last second ran off in over an actual time period of...1 second. Damn that Tom Osborne and those cheating Huskers!!

Good GoogaMooga...you've lost it. Your team choked. Get over it and move on...please...

[KingRalphie]

Why should the officials hurry up to bail out poor clock management?

Hawkins could have opted to kick the 51-yarder (Eberhart has the leg, yes?) on 3rd down with no timeouts, but he didn't.

The officials should hurry up because that's what they're supposed to do in that situation. That's what officials always do in that situation (barring fattened pockets or incompetence, of course). Moving at a relaxed pace when the action on the field (from both sides) is frantic would be a decisive and deliberate action in favor of the team that's not kicking the field goal.

Eberhart is as erratic as they come, give him 100 chances to do what he did at the end of Saturday's game and he'll pull it off once. Attempting to move in closer was the obvious choice there, because as CU proved on Saturday, even if Colorado got tackled inbounds without getting a first down they'd still have plenty of time left to get a snap off before the clock expired. They just didn't prepare for the possibility of being screwed over by the officials, it's an easy enough mistake to make I suppose.

it takes time for the back and field judge to get in position underneath the goalpost ESPECIALLY since they didnt know what colorado was gonna do.. spike it.. kick it..

It was 4th down, do you honestly think they're going to spike the ball? The refs knew full well what Colorado was going to do.

[Steve]

Whew. I'd rather have that than a win in the sense that the calls made on the field were technically not within the rules of the game, because boy would that be disheartening.

Look, ISU fans have been yelling at unfair or poor officiating for years. It's a cover-up for poor play. You don't blow a 21-0 lead and it's not even remotely an issue. You can blame a lot of things for the loss, but the primary problem lies on your sideline. You have a young, inexperienced QB and it showed last Saturday. He made a mistake. You guys lost the game because of it. It happens. Step up and take it like a man, instead of cowering behind the "it's the officials" excuse.

The end of the game officiating was not only "technically" correct, it was also "professionally" correct. The conference officials coordinator made a point that it would be unfair to one team or the other if the crew made an efort to either speed up or slow down their normal game routine at a critical point in the game. In other words, establish a tempo and stick with it for the entire game.

The other point is that if there is any finger pointing to be done, it has to be directed twards the CU QB. Granted he didn't throw an INT or take a sack, but he did the next worst thing. He absolutely needed to either throw the ball beyond the 1st down marker or at least throw the ball away. He might have gotten away with his decision if it had not been for an outstanding play by James Smith. Let's give some credit to ISU winning the game rather than try to blame a young QB or a highly regarded referee.

[DaddyMac]

Why should the officials hurry up to bail out poor clock management? The average time to set the ball is approximately 15 seconds. That's why the NFL adopted a 40-second play clock -- 15 seconds from the end of the play to the ready whistle, then the normal 25.

Hawkins could have opted to kick the 51-yarder (Eberhart has the leg, yes?) on 3rd down with no timeouts, but he didn't. And you lost because the receiver didn't get out of bounds.

Not to mention that same receiver threw the ball away, instead of handing it to an official. And also promptly lined up on the far side of the field instead of running straight off.

And I was wrong in one of my earlier posts. The 3rd down play began with 17 seconds on the clock. Probably only leaving 13 or 14 for ball to get set, teams changed and the play underway.

Just re-watched the game as well. I was rather skeptical of the game, after seeing it first hand. But after the replay, CU screwed themselves.

[herbiedoobie]

Who gave Queen Ralphie positive rep?

Jerk.

[cstrunk]

The officials should hurry up because that's what they're supposed to do in that situation. That's what officials always do in that situation (barring fattened pockets or incompetence, of course). Moving at a relaxed pace when the action on the field (from both sides) is frantic would be a decisive and deliberate action in favor of the team that's not kicking the field goal.

Eberhart is as erratic as they come, give him 100 chances to do what he did at the end of Saturday's game and he'll pull it off once. Attempting to move in closer was the obvious choice there, because as CU proved on Saturday, even if Colorado got tackled inbounds without getting a first down they'd still have plenty of time left to get a snap off before the clock expired. They just didn't prepare for the possibility of being screwed over by the officials, it's an easy enough mistake to make I suppose.



It was 4th down, do you honestly think they're going to spike the ball? The refs knew full well what Colorado was going to do.

For the love of all that is great and fair in this world, GIVE IT UP please.

The refs are NOT "supposed to" hurry in that situation. They are supposed to do their job and they did it the way they should have -- not showing favoritism to either team. I would really like to see this replay. You make it sound like the refs were walking around like old cripples. Also, it's been mentioned that your player through the ball which delayed the refs from getting it set. Get over yourself. You lost.

[LindenCy]

The officials should hurry up because that's what they're supposed to do in that situation. That's what officials always do in that situation (barring fattened pockets or incompetence, of course). Moving at a relaxed pace when the action on the field (from both sides) is frantic would be a decisive and deliberate action in favor of the team that's not kicking the field goal.

Eberhart is as erratic as they come, give him 100 chances to do what he did at the end of Saturday's game and he'll pull it off once. Attempting to move in closer was the obvious choice there, because as CU proved on Saturday, even if Colorado got tackled inbounds without getting a first down they'd still have plenty of time left to get a snap off before the clock expired. They just didn't prepare for the possibility of being screwed over by the officials, it's an easy enough mistake to make I suppose.



It was 4th down, do you honestly think they're going to spike the ball? The refs knew full well what Colorado was going to do.

The thing is, it really doesn't benefit the Big XII to have us win, so I don't think there is any conspiracy (not saying you are saying that). I do think it is funny that both CU and ISU fans can look to Nebraska with disdain .

[Rogue52]

So, I just watched the replay on CloneZone and all I got to say is Colorado was lucky they even got a second chance at it.

KingRalphie has made a living complaining about how the ball wasn't set yet, but none of his team was either. There were more than 11 men on the field and the clock should have expired to begin with. There shouldn't even have been one try for these reasons. Then, when the Nebraska official gave Colorado a gift one second to try again, their long snapper had a stroke.

Yes, it was a real conspiracy down there on the field. What college is the long snapper really rooting for? Maybe he wanted to go to Nebraska but had to settle for Colorado.

It all makes sense now.

[jbhtexas]

Who gave Queen Ralphie positive rep?

Probably some of the Squawk lurkers...

Or somebody gave him +rep by mistake...

[ISUAlum2002]

He was actually at over 75,000 rep yesterday somehow.

[only4cy]

It was 4th down, do you honestly think they're going to spike the ball?

Why not .... then kick the FG on 5th down (or is that only allowed when you play at Missouri?)