ND is far from unbeatable because they allow decent teams to stay close. I remember their first game this year how everyone anointed them the second coming.
Of course ND is beatable.
But I think they are still one of the best 5-6 teams in the country.
The only decent team they allowed to stay close was Duke.
OSU & ND were evenly matched as could be.
ND blew out everyone else.
ND has been killing themselves with penalties.
I’m worried more about the horrid ACC officials.
Not bad officials making bad calls, but the fact that in 4 games this year with ACC officials, 3 times they didn’t even know the rules.
They didn’t review a play in a game because they said it wasn’t reviewable. The rules expert was screaming on TV it was. He was right. It was reviewable.
Then next, that reviewed a personal foul, roughing the passer, but without targeting. That isn’t reviewable (the personal foul roughing the passer by itself isn’t reviewable).
Third, they reviewed a punt wether it was a touchback or not, which wasn’t reviewable unless it touched the pylon (which is didn’t).
So the fact that 3 times in 4 games the ACC officials didn’t know the rules bothers me.
That’s not even counting the bad officiating you normally see from ACC officials.
It was reported last week that ND had concern with how many plays they had to submit to the ACC review (like every team does each week), because of how bad the officiating was. (Not your normal holding, PI, etc… stuff).
An ND site put up five plays that were sent in and showed them on Twitter. All ACC crews.
1) Opponent snapped the ball from the 5, the Center runs into the EZ (which is really easy to see), the QB throws the pass into the EZ (so obviously pass the LOS). The official throws the flag for illegal man down field.
Then the head official runs up to him, talks to him, they pick the flag up. Announce he wasn’t pass 3 yards? The ball was snapped at the 5 & dude was two yards deep in the EZ trying to block a LB. LOL
2) Defender gets beat off the ball so grabs the WR to stop the long TD pass. WR keeps running & defender just holds him all the way down the field. QB smartly throws it that way to get PI instead of holding (huge difference in yards). The official on that sideline, watching the entire situation from snap, correctly throws the flag. The backjudge runs over and talks to him, they pick the flag up. Announce it wasn’t catchable. The rules expert jumps on & says of course it wasn’t catchable, because the WR was held for 20 yards, which the backjudge wouldn’t see, so the official who threw the flag was correct in the first place.
3) QB rolls out of the pocket running a high low concept with his WR & TE both running outs. He is about to throw to the TE & the LB just tackles the TE. So the QB smartly just throws it across the LOS over their heads out of bounds to get the defensive hold penalty (you have to throw a legal forward pass across the LOS for that to be a penalty). Officials pick up flag. No reason given.
4) Pretty straight forward. DT beats the Guard to the inside, free run at QB, Guard does what he is taught, and straight up tackles the DT around the waist from behind to perfect his QB. We have all see it a million times. Ref staring at it pulls his flag, but doesn’t throw it. Then you can see him between plays putting it back in his pocket while Marcus Freeman is going apesh!t.
5) ND defender lines up across from WR. Looks at sidejudge for thumbs up he is onsides, sidejudge gives it to him. He then crouches down & his face mask is literally in the neutral zone, feet never move from original spot, ball snapped, same sidejudge immediately throws flag, calls offsides.
So, not talking the normal bad stuff that happens in every game, but horrible officiating (changing calls when the first was correct) or just flat out not knowing the rules has been the issue.
