I only got to see the last quarter of today’s game with the Iowa Hawkeyes because I was busy doing other things. The game came down to the last few seconds and the Wolverines got screwed.
They got the ball back with about 2 minutes left in the game. The Wolverines were down 24-16. They drove down the field and got to the three yard-line of the Hawkeyes. On second down, Denard threw a fade into the endzone and Junior Hemingway made a brilliant one-handed catch while falling out-of-bounds. It was ruled incomplete.
I watched the TV as they showed every angle of the replay. Hemingway caught the ball with his right hand, secured it by clutching the ball to his chest with both arms, and his knee touched down in-bounds before his elbow touched down out-of-bounds. They showed the same thing from every angle. The ball did not come loose when Hemingway hit the turf. It was a touchdown.
The referee came back out after the booth review and said that the play stood, it was an incomplete pass. What a crock of shit. I don’t know who was up in that booth that made the call, but he (or she) needs to be fired. It’s hard to fault the ref because he has to make a judgement in real time at real speed. The replay booth official has no such excuses. He (or she) fucked up and cost Michigan a shot at trying the game. Sure, they would have had to convert the two-point conversion to tie it, but by blowing the call Michigan never had a chance.
The Wolverines still had two more downs to try to score, and both passes were broken up. The last one looked like there was some interference, but it all happened so fast I really couldn’t tell. It’s beside the point, though. There never should have been a third and fourth down because they scored on second down.
That call was a bunch of suck.
Yeah, I watched the replay and it was a catch. While I don’t share your outrage, I will admit that Michigan got hosed on that one.