Ball Spotting

The Jacket

The Jacket

The Coat
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Jun 17, 2002
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Pretty good look. I can honestly say that ball-spotting would have been in my top three of things I bitch about most during a game - those of you who have watched games near me may or may not have heard it. I've pointed it out in a couple of game threads and the chat but spot accuracy has seemed to be in horrid shape this year.
 
The Jacket said:
I hate this ööööing forum.
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+1

It is as if no one actually wants to talk about football.

Spotting the ball is tough and could be 'part of the game'. When your offense is based on running the ball, it is big because first downs stop the clock (to set the ball or until the snap, depending).

Look at last week's weirdo officiating. They let the clock run for about a minute while the officials huddle and call a first down in the 2nd quarter. Tulane gets the ball with just over 1 minute after a Tech score later. If they have 2 minutes, maybe they don't go with the stupid poor clock management/play calling and get their heads straight and score.

Stuff like this doesn't matter in blowouts, but winning close games is how you create 'special' seasons.
 
My dad always mentioned how funny he found it how officials will toss the ball around, guesstimate, use their feet to spot it, but THEN...get the chains out and measure it precisely 10 yards for the first down.
 
Football Forum = Land mine field

Dust yourself off Jacket, get your ball spotted.
 
Come on Jacket, if Stingtalk was a reality show you know you'd watch it everyday along with everyone else in America.
 
GTCrew4b said:
My dad always mentioned how funny he found it how officials will toss the ball around, guesstimate, use their feet to spot it, but THEN...get the chains out and measure it precisely 10 yards for the first down.
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In this case, precision is more important than accuracy.
 
[y]GTfCI-tJy_Y[/y]

:hsugh:


Be honest. You else would have flipped their öööö if this happened against Tech?
 
gte490v said:
+1



It is as if no one actually wants to talk about football.



Spotting the ball is tough and could be 'part of the game'. When your offense is based on running the ball, it is big because first downs stop the clock (to set the ball or until the snap, depending).



Look at last week's weirdo officiating. They let the clock run for about a minute while the officials huddle and call a first down in the 2nd quarter. Tulane gets the ball with just over 1 minute after a Tech score later. If they have 2 minutes, maybe they don't go with the stupid poor clock management/play calling and get their heads straight and score.



Stuff like this doesn't matter in blowouts, but winning close games is how you create 'special' seasons.
Click to expand...


Precisely. On top of that, poor spots throughout a game (which does happen, they aren't always isolated incidents) can change the game entirely. There was a lot of it going on in the Purdue-Marshall game, a game the Herd honestly should have run away with, and I'm not implying that poor spots are the reason they didn't, but it certainly didn't help their cause. (Aside: I really cannot say enough how bad Purdue is. They're not Texas-bad, but they're not far off.)

Like you mentioned, in running offenses and ours in particular, when you're talking about a bad spot by even half a yard, that's going to impact the call and the read itself. It's a big deal.
 
Ball spotting is easy if you're an SEC ref because Justin Thomas was nowhere near that goal-line plane and certainly didn't have his forward momentum stopped, because clearly that was a fumble...

That play during the MSU/LSU game mentioned in that article was funny to watch. ESPN clearly knew the play was a good yard and a half short, the announcer was completely confused and the dude handling the TV graphics went ahead and left it the way it should have been called. Confusion L around.

I think no one talks about ball spotting because it's a game of inches and the refs are making mistakes by the foot. To acknowledge this breaks the fundamental understanding of the game.
 
Easier to see where the ball should be spotted from the announcer booth than at ground level?
 
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