I was preparing a brutal rant about last night's Alamo Bowl (and Michigan's season in general) when I realized that my blood pressure was going up by about a point per word. So in the interest of not having my head pop like an overripe grape, I'll only say this: I'd like to thank the South Texas School For The Blind for providing the officiating crew, and if the replay official was any slower, he'd be riding the short bus to work. I think Lloyd Carr leads Division I-A in 'challenges' (burning timeouts so the replay official can decide 'gosh, maybe I need to look at that one again'). When veteran CFB guys like Herbie and Tirico use phrases like "one of the worst-officiated games I've ever seen" and "to overcome the incompetence of the replay official", you know the zebras screwed the pooch.
But that's the thing. There are bad calls made in every game; some of them hurt you and some of them help you. There is no global conspiracy to screw your team over or promote some other team (something State Pen fans seem to have trouble comprehending). If you take care of business, a bad call (or two, or seven) can't beat you. Michigan led by four entering the fourth quarter ( which was a bad sign in itself - see Vijay's December 8th post) - and led by 11 at one point later on.
They have no excuses. None.
Posted by Chris at December 29, 2005 09:57 AMYup, Chris, agreed.
The play on the field is one thing.
The officiating is another.
People are fond of pointing out that the bad officiating doesn't excuse bad play, but it's equally true that our bad play doesn't excuse the bad officiating.
Posted by: ny1995 at December 29, 2005 01:18 PM