[scorecard]

Anybody care to comment on that targeting call? I thought it was unfuckingbelievable, but I was watching in a bar so I didn't catch any of the commentators or Mike Pereira's interpretation...

The reasoning for the flag standing was that they can't pick up the flag once it has been thrown.  On replay, Mike Pereira and the commentators felt the runner slipped, and it really shouldn't have been a penalty at all, as there was no helmet-to-helmet contact.  But there is no recourse once the flag is thrown in college.

For me, it gave me bad memories of Amanam last year getting called for helmet-to-helmet against Everett Golson when he was running and being spun around on a 1st and 20 at midfield that basically put the Irish in field goal range to tie the game towards the end of regulation.  That also wasn't helmet to helmet, and was basically a "it looked like the player was hit too hard, even the crowd said ouch" knee-jerk reaction penalty. 

[scorecard]

Anybody care to comment on that targeting call? I thought it was unfuckingbelievable, but I was watching in a bar so I didn't catch any of the commentators or Mike Pereira's interpretation...

The reasoning for the flag standing was that they can't pick up the flag once it has been thrown.  On replay, Mike Pereira and the commentators felt the runner slipped, and it really shouldn't have been a penalty at all, as there was no helmet-to-helmet contact.  But there is no recourse once the flag is thrown in college.

For me, it gave me bad memories of Amanam last year getting called for helmet-to-helmet against Everett Golson when he was running and being spun around on a 1st and 20 at midfield that basically put the Irish in field goal range to tie the game towards the end of regulation.  That also wasn't helmet to helmet, and was basically a "it looked like the player was hit too hard, even the crowd said ouch" knee-jerk reaction penalty.