Upon Further Review
November 15, 2009 01:58 PM | General
November 15, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - For those living in Morgantown or South Bend, the two words that will get people’s blood boiling this morning are instant and replay.
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| A dejected West Virginia player sits on the bench with a towel over his head after the Mountaineers' 16-13 loss to Pitt at Heinz Field on Nov. 25, 2004.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
On Saturday night, Irish fans saw a replay reversal go against them when an incomplete Jimmy Clausen pass was changed to a fumble by replay officials with 2:10 remaining in the game and Notre Dame trailing Pitt by five.
Had the call on the field been upheld, Notre Dame would have been faced with a fourth and 16 at its own 27. In all likelihood, Notre Dame would not have converted the fourth down play anyway, but …
Now hit the rewind button to Friday night.
In Cincinnati, the replay man’s finger prints could be found all over the West Virginia-Cincinnati game. An airborne Isaiah Pead was stopped short of the goal line where he stuck out the football in an attempt to score the touchdown.
The ball was knocked out of his hands as he was extending it and the football was recovered by a West Virginia player at the Bearcat 3. On the field the play was ruled a fumble. The Mountaineers’ 14-7 lead was preserved with 5:26 remaining in the half.
About 10 minutes later replay officials overturned the ruling on the field and awarded Cincinnati a momentum-changing touchdown
As fate would have it, that TD proved to be the difference in a game Cincinnati won 24-21 to keep its Big East and national championship hopes alive. As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers’ Big East title hopes ended against Cincinnati for a second straight year.
The very first question West Virginia Coach Bill Stewart was asked after the game was about the reversed call that put points on the board for the Bearcats.
“I’m going to save that for the Big East, they’re professional men and they called it, I guess, the way they saw it,” Stewart said diplomatically.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel was also asked about the play.
“I couldn’t tell from where I’m at,” Casteel said. “It got reviewed and that’s the way they ruled it. Of course our guys see it differently, but we need to make a play with four-to-five minutes left in the game when we had a chance to make a play. When you don’t do that, you get beat.”
What makes Friday’s reversal so ironic is that West Virginia is directly responsible for the Big East adopting instant replay in the first place.
In another high-stakes game in 2004, West Virginia was the victim of a blown call that led to Pitt beating the Mountaineers, 16-13, in Pittsburgh.
Here were the circumstances. West Virginia, at one time in the driver’s seat for the Big East title with an 8-1 record, stumbled in Morgantown against Boston College to set up a three-way chase between Boston College, West Virginia and Pitt for the conference crown.
West Virginia needed a Syracuse victory over Boston College and a win over Pitt to earn the league’s BCS bid. Pitt had a similar path to the BCS, needing a victory over West Virginia and a Syracuse victory over BC. Well, Syracuse upset BC that enabled a winner-take-all night game at Heinz Field between West Virginia and Pitt on ESPN.
West Virginia was leading 13-9 midway through the fourth quarter when Pitt was confronted with a third and 8 at its own 42. Panther quarterback Tyler Palko completed a pass over the middle to a sliding Greg Lee for a 15-yard gain to the West Virginia 43 to keep the chains moving.
But instant replay clearly showed that Lee had pinned the football against the ground and when he rolled over the ball was clearly out of his hands. The trailing official did not have a clear view of the play and ruled it a catch on the field. Had there been a replay official upstairs, the play would have been overturned.
Had that happened Pitt would have been forced to punt the ball back to West Virginia with less than eight minutes left in the game and the Panthers having only two timeouts remaining. There is a chance West Virginia could have either run out the clock or scored.
But two more passes to Lee and a pass interference call on West Virginia’s Adam Lehnortt set up Palko’s game-winning touchdown with 4:06 left.
That missed call at Heinz Field on Nov. 25, 2004 helped Pitt get to the Fiesta Bowl and led to the Big East Conference adopting instant replay – for better or for worse.
