Do you like the way they are changing the game?

[dvdcrr]

I just saw the South Carolina hit that resulted in the suspension of the D-back last weekend for "targeting" . It just looked like a good hit to me not like what we used to call "speering" with the top of the head. It just looked like a good hard hit to me. They are really taking the hard hitting out of the game, and to me the overall game of football suffers. A defensive player just can't affort to hit as hard or as well as they used to. For example with today's rules the John Ruud hit in 78 on the kickoff would surely have resulted in a suspension. That is one of the hits we celebrate in Husker history, but in today's world it would be shunned. I just don't understand it. I played football in junior high, high school and college, and coached ( I am a certified NE coach). We taught (and were taught) to tuck your chin , square up, and drive through the player. A defensive player today is asked to make the entire hit with his shoulder, which is difficult and can end up with a broken collar bone, shoulder separation or broken arm. We never taught to lead with the head, or to duck the head. We taught to keep the head up and not to speer. But the head was there and part of the hit, usually the forehead or side of the helmet.

 

Secondly, these reviews up in the booth that end up overturning a catch are really splitting hairs and really slowing down the game. I watched a good call last night go against ULM after review, where it seemed to me the official on the field had it right. There was no undisputable evidence but it was overturned anyway. These box refs sit up there with a rule book and try to apply it word for word to what they are seeing in ultra slow motion. The result is that some calls which are good catches are getting taken away. Things look different in slow motion than real life. When you go frame by frame that ball looks like it sits on the ground for an eternity with those 6 or seven fingers under it. But in real life those fingers clasped under that ball, hit the ground first and controlled the ball all the way through even though the whole thing took only a third of a second. I think they need to only review these things if it looked like it might not have been a catch, but the one last night was an "automatic review"

 

What's with this possessing the ball all the way through the catch? We have refs looking to see what happens 6 yards out of bounds. To me you catch the ball (get control of it with your hands or arms.) and when some part of your body hits out of bounds the play is over. What happens after the play is dead is irrelevant to me. That's the way it was for about 50 years but now all of a sudden that's not good enough?

[HuskerShark]

No. Case in point: The Stanley Jean-Baptiste hit earlier that got called "targeting."

 

WTF!!!!

[Notre Dame Joe]

No

[TonyStalloni]

No. Case in point: The Stanley Jean-Baptiste hit earlier that got called "targeting."

 

WTF!!!!

 

That flag was thrown in anticipation of a much harder hit than it was. The contact looked to be only shoulder and hand....and not to the receivers head.

[The Dude]

No.

[2ndNnine]

that thigpen kid for ucla took an obvious intentional helmet to helmet targeting shot at ameer on the kick-catch interference play. should have been ejected and suspended, but no call.

i agree the game needs to be made safer but it seems awfully inconsistent.

[ShawnWatson]

No.

[killer cacti]

I don't like the kickoff rules. They're supposed to be safer. Have you seen FSU this year? They kick the ball a mile high, put bigger guys on the field (since they have more time and less space to cover) and when the returner is catching it, their players are at least at the 20, full speed. Tell me how that's safer?

 

They started kicking into the endzone in the Clemson game after Sammy Watkins nearly made them pay for giving him the opportunity to run.

[Count 'Bility]

I don't like the kickoff rules. They're supposed to be safer. Have you seen FSU this year? They kick the ball a mile high, put bigger guys on the field (since they have more time and less space to cover) and when the returner is catching it, their players are at least at the 20, full speed. Tell me how that's safer?

 

They started kicking into the endzone in the Clemson game after Sammy Watkins nearly made them pay for giving him the opportunity to run.

 

I knew this was going to happen, in an effort to cause a turnover or fair catch into bad field position. Rule makers never see the negatives, only the positives, regardless of the weighings.

[GSG]

I like it. I think the guys should wear bras and tin foil hats and use a balloon instead of a football.