Sunday, October 26, 2008

Aww, Nutt(s)!

Worst offensive pass interference call in the history of college football dooms Razorbacks

Boooooo!

Everyone saw it. Everyone saw nothing. Everyone saw two guys jockeying for position for a lofted pass from Casey Dick with just under a minute remaining in the football game. A group of Ole Miss players, coaches, fans and one solitary referee obviously saw something different. Offensive pass interference on Arkansas' London Crawford. Please.

What was otherwise a perfectly boring game turned into a real football game in the final five minutes. Trailing 20-7, Casey Dick engineered a scoring drive to bring the Hogs to within 20-14 with 4:28 remaining.



(Lucas Miller celebrates after his TD catch brought the Hogs to within 20-14 in the 4th quarter)




The Hog defense appeared to let the game slip away giving up a big pass play from Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead that resulted in what appeared to be the game clinching field goal with 1:45 remaining to give Ole Miss the 23-14 lead.

As Arkansas fans filed out, Dick led another scoring charge as the Razorbacks scored in 38 seconds to cut the lead to 23-21 with 1:07 remaining giving the remaining Razorback faithful hope.

The ensuing onside kick by Alex Tejada was recovered by the Razorbacks at midfield which set up the play in question to London Crawford.

Casey Dick's 34 yard completion to Crawford would have put the ball at the 21 yard line of Ole Miss with less than a minute to go in a 23-21 ballgame - well within field goal range. Instead, an offensive interference penalty offset the gain plus put the ball back at the Arkansas 32 yard line after the 15 yard penalty was stepped off. The Razorbacks ran out of plays and time.

A heroic comeback in the final few minutes was all for naught when one referee pulled out his stupid little yellow hanky and tossed in the direction of London Crawford.

So, the fans, who got their "boos" worth on Saturday night got one final moment to boo Nutt and the officials (a boo-for-one special) as the game ended and the teams ran off the field.

Some will say Nutt deserved to win that game, others will not. All I know, is that there's one sucky official out there who'll have to live with the call that I will refer to as the worst offensive pass interference call of all time, and I also know that there's one lucky, giddy, goober of Nutt in Oxford today.

Boooooo!

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