Michigan State Was Robbed Of Additional Kick; Officials Now Admit It
To all of us who watched the Michigan State vs Arizona State football game last Saturday and believe MSU was robbed at the end of the game, we were right.
When MSU’s field goal kicker blew his final field goal, and blew it badly, to take the game into overtime we all saw a player for Arizona State player run towards the line of scrimmage and jump over a MSU player, a penalty that was never called. Why is that important, because that would have given MSU and the field goal kicker another attempt at tying the game, an attempt that would have been 15 yards closer.
Coach Dantonio said at the news conference after the game that:
They try and hurdle us that should be a penalty
The coach was correct because something I have not seen in the past has occurred, the referees are from the Pac-12 conference and the Pac-12 release a statement and explanatory video late Sunday admitting that their conference officials blew the call.
In that video and released statement the officials from the conference stated:
An Arizona State defensive player took a running start and leapt over the kicking team’s line in an attempt to block the kick…In the process, he leapt into the frame of the body of an opponent. The penalty would have been 15 yards from the previous spot and an automatic first down.
They went on to explain:
In this case, it would have been administered as half the distance to the goal and Michigan State would have been provided one untimed down.
Will that change the score of the game, no!
Will the two teams have to line up again and give MSU the opportunity to tie the game and go into overtime, no!
Does that excuse their field goal kicker, one of the better ones in college football, from missing 3 field goals, no!
Does it excuse the fact that MSU did rack up over 400 yards of offensive against Arizona State and could only put 7 points on the board, no!
It really means nothing other than the fact that they admitted their referees blew the call, MSU still gets the loss on the record.
It does hurt and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. These teams work hard during the season and in the off season and to rack up a loss, or at least not get another chance to tie the game certainly is not fair to the players.