National Championship: Big Ten referees blow 2 glaring calls that hurt Georgia
By Devin Keller
The officials for the 2018 College Football National Championship are from the Big Ten, and they missed two crucial calls for the Georgia Bulldogs.
One of the calls that were towards the Georgia defense was the offside call which cost them a blocked punt recovery at around the 20-yard line. However, this call wasn’t necessarily “offsides.” Instead, the Georgia defensive line lined up perfectly on the line of scrimmage which left a lot of people scratching their heads. Big Ten referees are at it again
https://twitter.com/finebaum/status/950569376075350016
You cannot call something that obvious that isn’t even close to offside. That alone cost the Bulldogs beautiful field position inside the red zone considering that play was a blocked punt. The blocked punt was taken back because of this horrendous call that would’ve definitely had the Bulldogs on the board with more points.
These Big Ten officials have also missed another call. After the punt, which should’ve been blocked, the Bulldogs set up their offense. On 2nd down, an obvious face mask wasn’t called. The fans were then screaming and booing in outrage how their running back’s facemask was yanked and wasn’t called. Officiating is becoming absolutely absurd.
Big Ten officiating has always been off in certain games. Not as bad as Pac-12, but noticeably terrible most of the time. With this game becoming a low-scoring bloodbath, calls like this are extremely crucial. Not only would have Georgia scored on that blocked punt which was called back by a bogus offside penalty, but the face mask no-call would’ve brought the Bulldogs closer to field goal range to at least put 3 points up on the board in the worse case scenario.
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Overall, the officiating in football recently has been a nightmare. Not only these terrible calls, and no-calls, but the reviews. Obvious catches are being reviewed for ages, and drops are considered catches 50-percent of the time. Let’s hope the officiating improves as these 2 calls were incredibly crucial for this Georgia offense and defense.