Scott Johnson's hit was legal.

[U-Ute]

I'm confused. Which team won?

[UtahDan]

Just to clarify. Is it your position that the hit was legal and the call was incorrect, but close enough to be acceptable?

My position is that it is a non-reviewable judgment call and that at game speed it appears to be helmet to helmet. If the play looks like a foul and it not reviewable, what difference does it make if it turns out to not in fact be a foul? That is my whole point in saying that when you launch yourself and lead with your hat, you are gong to get called for that more often than not because it looks like it is helmet to helmet. The two officials on top of the play didn't hesitate a moment before tossing their flags, so everyone can agree that is how they saw it.

If a defender plays a receiver tight, never looks back for the ball, and they both fall down when the ball arrives does it matter much whether the contact is incidental or whether there was a push? It doesn't matter at all because at game speed, without your head around, you invite a PI call in that scenario. It is the same thing.

You are dwelling on whether he makes helmet to helmet contact. I'm trying to tell you that this isn't the dispositive question. The dispositive question is whether at game speed it looks like he has. See my point? On a judgment call if you walk up to the line on an issue the refs have been trained to be sensitive to you are going to get a flag, not because the refs are shoddy or it is a "crap call" but because that is how the rule has been set up to function. If I as a lineman throw a haymaker of a head slap, I am going to get called for illegal hands to the face even if it turns out, looking at a replay, that I just missed. There are a dozen other examples of this.

The two solutions are to make it reviewable or to teach your defenders not to launch themselves at receivers head first because you know that it going to draw a call. The level of precision some people seem to want is just not possible at field level at game speed.

[Shaka]

That is my whole point in saying that when you launch yourself and lead with your hat, you are gong to get called for that more often than not because it looks like it is helmet to helmet.

And this is where you are going wrong. Officials are not trained to make a call simply because a player launches himself leading with his head. I agree the speed of the play increased the difficulty level for the officials. This does not change the fact they got it wrong. The hit was clean and is an example of a hard, legal hit that is part of football.

[cougjunkie]

He did not hit him helmet to helmet but like Surfah said when you launch and lead with your helmet you open yourself up to that call. The refs may have missed the call but I clearly see why it was made. Not sure why the BYU bench started going ape shit, maybe because they were sick of all the anti-mormon BS during the game from the OSU players.

[All-American]

He did not hit him helmet to helmet but like Surfah said when you launch and lead with your helmet you open yourself up to that call. The refs may have missed the call but I clearly see why it was made. Not sure why the BYU bench started going ape shit, maybe because they were sick of all the anti-mormon BS during the game from the OSU players.

Possibly because it was an awesome play.

[cougjunkie]

Possibly because it was an awesome play.

Not really that awesome, he actually missed making solid contact.

[Non Sequitur]

Not really that awesome, he actually missed making solid contact.

I'm not sure he was trying to make contact. Looked like he was going after the ball, trying to knock it loose. He did an awesome job of doing that.

[Viking]

How is something very legal? Is it possible for anything to be more than just legal?

legal=cool in portuguese

[All-American]

Not really that awesome, he actually missed making solid contact.

Solid hit, knocked the ball loose. Awesome.

[il Padrino Ute]

legal=cool in portuguese

That's a bit of fun linguistic trivia. I like that.