Can anyone explain to me what the penalty called on Adrian Mayes was? I thought that there was no halo rule any more and Mayes obviously didn't interfere with the Oklahoma player's opportunity to catch the ball since he caught it.
While there is no halo rule, there is an interference with the opportunity to catch the ball rule ... it's a judgement call. The replay clearly showed it was a good hit...
It was the identical play made by Oklahoma with ten minutes left in the second quarter when they tackled Green and no flags were thrown. Guess the refs were tired in the fourth quarter also.
The refs did blow the call on the hit as it was timed perfectly but they also blew the call on the fumble by I think Adai on the pass reception as he clearly caught it, was hit and fumbled. The calls pretty much evened out I thought. and after watching the rest of the bowl games this one was the best of the bunch for officiating.
The Addai play was not a catch, he has to come down with both feet before they consider it a possession of the ball and he didn't get that far before being shallacked. The interference call was a bad one and the announcers even said that. I think the ferocity of the hit caused the penalty more than anything, as he hog collared the guy, even tho that is a CLEAN hit. It did hurt us by about 25 yards difference in field position, but it didn't matter as the LSU Defense was not going to let OU score anyway.
Not true. Article 5 of the 2003 rule book states that a player "gains possesion when he is firmly holding or controlling the ball while contacting the ground in bounds." Article 7 further explains possession in regards to the forward pass.
