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Officials’ bad calls deserve criticism

Blaming officials for a loss is almost never appropriate or correct, but let’s be realistic about one thing: The refs hosed Penn State on Saturday, and the Nittany Lions very well might have beaten Ohio State if not for the bungling by the zebras.

“All that equals 10 points, right?” PSU coach James Franklin said of two botched calls that went against the Lions.

Those 10 points helped decide the game. The Buckeyes would not have scored them had the correct calls been made, and with Penn State’s defense dominating, there’s every reason to believe the Lions would have prevailed had those 10 points not gone up on the board.

Instead, a gift interception that led to a touchdown and a gift field goal helped the Buckeyes escape Beaver Stadium with a 31-24 win in double overtime.

On the interception, which occurred on PSU’s first series, replays clearly showed the ball hit the ground. But Ohio State was given possession at the Lions’ 39-yard line anyway, and they scored a TD for an early 7-0 lead.

Later, on a 49-yard field goal, the play clock expired and showed “00” for a good two seconds. But there was no flag thrown, and the kick made it 17-0 when it actually should have been only 7-0.

The Big Ten released the following statement late Sunday night addressing the interception, blaming it on technical difficulties with the replay system.

“In regards to the play that was called an interception on the field with 13:07 remaining in the first quarter, the video feed to the replay booth was tested and confirmed on Friday and prior to the game on Saturday, but at the start of the game, the booth was no longer receiving all available feeds.

“The technician in the booth followed procedure by contacting the production truck, which immediately began working on the issue. Due to these technical difficulties, only one isolated shot from the overhead camera was available and the view did not provide sufficient information to reverse the call.

“As a result, the play stood as called. The production truck rectified the technical issues shortly thereafter, and the replay booth had access to multiple feeds for the remainder of the game.”

OK, so technically it was bad luck for Penn State – pun intended – but come on, the refs need to get that call right on the field anyway.

Replay is a wonderful tool in sports because, as we hear all the time, the goal is to get the correct call. But one has to wonder if modern-day officials subconsciously have come to use replay as a crutch, knowing their mistakes will be corrected.

Until, that is, the replays fail, and the blunder isn’t corrected.

Now, being a official is a tough, often thankless job. No one notices you until you make a mistake.

But this is major-college football. These are supposed to be some of the best officials in the business. And they whiffed on the interception call.

They also whiffed with the play clock on the field goal, a situation that showed the officiating crew’s failure to follow procedure. There has to be at least one, if not more, officials whose job it is to look up at the play clock when the ball is snapped, and whoever that person is failed to do his job on a very important play.

The Big Ten statement Sunday did not address the field-goal matter.

Neither did Franklin, not in any specific words, anyway. He gave politically correct answers after the game, saying things like, “I’d love to come in here and tell you what I really think.”

So why shouldn’t he be allowed to?

Why is it in sports that when officials blow key calls, they have the ultimate protection of leagues – pro and college – bending over backwards to make sure that coaches and players don’t criticize them?

It’s nonsense. These are grown men – and occasionally women – and their actions play enormous roles in all of this country’s beloved sports.

If they make mistakes, they should be open to fair criticism, without a coach or player running the risk of a big fine or suspension.

What’s really wrong with Franklin coming right out and saying, “I thought the officials blew the calls on the interception and the field goal.”

He absolutely should be able to.

Oh, but the leagues take every measure to protect officials by making sure they cannot be criticized publicly.

Well, how about protecting the rights of the hard-working athletes and coaches by giving them the freedom to call out an official when it’s obvious that a mistake was made?

SUBHD: Looking ahead

I’m not a fan of moral victories in big-time sports, but we have to be realistic based on the situation. Saturday’s close loss absolutely was a moral victory, whether Franklin and the PSU camp want to use those words or not.

It’s all just semantics. Moral victory merely implies that things happened in a loss that encourage a team and help it move forward in a positive direction.

That’s exactly what happened Saturday.

It’s not that losing will ever or should ever be accepted at Penn State. But given that even many diehard fans expected another blowout after last year’s 63-14 devastation, losing in double-overtime absolutely makes everyone in the Nittany Nation – players and coaches included – feel a lot better about the program than they did heading into the game.

The key for Penn State now is to build on that momentum. Not much was expected from the team against Ohio State because it had not given much indication the first half of the season that it could accomplish big things.

Expectations now will automatically go up after the strong showing against Ohio State, and those expectations will have to be met Saturday against Maryland, or else people will just go back to thinking what they saw against the Buckeyes was a fluke.

Penn State is catching Maryland at a good time after it got destroyed at Wisconsin, 52-7. The Terps have shown some good things this season, but that’s the kind of loss that can affect a team for two or three weeks to follow.

That, coupled with PSU’s renewed optimism, could give the Lions a big advantage Saturday. Not that Vegas sees things that way as it installed Penn State as only a 2 1/2-point favorite.

Cory Giger is the host of “Sports Central” from 4 to 6 p.m. daily on ESPN Radio 1430 WVAM. Reach him @CoryGiger on Twitter.

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