December 31, 2015 at 5:41 p.m.
Changes needed in wake of bowl defeat
Line Drives
Hoosier fans, I feel your pain.
Saturday afternoon, I watched the New Era Pinstripe Bowl with my dad.
I didn’t think I’d ever bring myself to watch an IU football game that didn’t involve Michigan State.
(For what it’s worth, I’m nervous for the Cotton Bowl tonight as the Spartans take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff semifinal.)
But I watched the Hoosiers play the Duke Blue Devils for a few reasons: I wanted to see a football game in a baseball stadium, Duke had been part of a few exciting bowl games in the past and I figured it would be a high-scoring affair.
This season, Indiana had scored 30 or more points eight times during the regular season and was 6-2 in those games.
The Hoosiers proved they had the capability to hang with some of the best teams in the country.
Indiana gave Ohio State a scare Oct. 3, even leading the Buckeyes in the second half before losing 34-27. After losing a high-scoring affair Oct. 17 on homecoming to Rutgers, 55-52, the Hoosiers went toe-to-toe with Michigan State but fell apart in the second half.
Three weeks later the Hoosiers lost by seven to Michigan before beating Maryland 47-28 and blasting Purdue 54-36.
So on the day after Christmas, the stars seemed aligned for Indiana to get its first bowl win in two decades.
Early in the fourth quarter at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York, kicker Griffin Oaks kicked a 27-yard field goal to extend the Hoosiers’ lead to 34-27.
It didn’t last long, as Duke’s Shaun Wilson scampered 98 yards on the ensuing kickoff and the Blue Devils tied the game.
A Nate Sudfeld-to-Mitchell Paige touchdown pass put the Hoosiers back on top 41-34 with 4:03 remaining. Then with 41 seconds left, the dramatics continued, as Duke capped off a 78-yard scoring drive with a 5-yard touchdown run.
The drama wasn’t done yet.
As good as the game was during regulation — there were 24 total points scored in each of the final three quarters — it will forever be defined by the overtime play that ended it.
Duke kicked a field goal on the opening possession of the extra period, leaving the Hoosiers with an opportunity to score a touchdown to win or a kick a field goal to send it into another overtime period.
Indiana only managed four yards on three plays, leaving Oakes with a 38-yard field goal to tie the game.
From the right hash mark, Oakes’ attempt sailed over the uprights above the goal post and was ruled no good.
While the Blue Devils rushed the field to celebrate their first bowl win since 1961, Oakes and IU coach Kevin Wilson pleaded their case that the kick was indeed good, that it did not go over the post.
“The ball went beyond the end line over the top of the upright and when that occurs, the play is not reviewable,” crew chief Chris Coyte told a reporter.
A heartbreaking loss for the Hoosiers.
All because of a suspect rule.
Hoosier fans, I feel your pain.
It seems during most Detroit Lions games the NFL rulebook for what is a catch gets rewritten, changed to benefit whomever the Lions are playing.
It’s tough to have games go against your team in that fashion.
It just baffles me that Oakes’ kick Saturday could not be reviewed.
Granted, there was no clear camera angle to show whether or not the ball did indeed go through the uprights, just wide or sraight over the goal post.
But therein lies the problem.
On the eve of 2016, technology has come to the point in sports that nearly everything can be seen from multiple angles.
There are even cameras inside the pylons in the NFL.
What comes as a surprise, with the number of cameras installed during every national sporting event — especially football games — is there are still not cameras placed to give a clear view of both sides of the goal post. There is always a camera right in the middle of the goal post, but never with a straight shot at the posts, which seems to be where the most controversy occurs.
See: 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Don’t want to add cameras?
Add a laser, a motion sensor of sorts. Put it on top of the goal posts, and if the plane is broken by the football on a field goal then it is no good.
Then there will be no judgment call as to whether or not the football actually went directly over the upright.
Make the conferences, not the schools, pay for the implementation of any new measures.
As a fan, I’d rather a game take five minutes longer by getting a controversial play correct rather than shortening a game by leaving doubt.
There are ways to ensure the final play from the Pinstripe Bowl doesn’t happen.
Why haven’t these measures been taken?
Saturday afternoon, I watched the New Era Pinstripe Bowl with my dad.
I didn’t think I’d ever bring myself to watch an IU football game that didn’t involve Michigan State.
(For what it’s worth, I’m nervous for the Cotton Bowl tonight as the Spartans take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff semifinal.)
But I watched the Hoosiers play the Duke Blue Devils for a few reasons: I wanted to see a football game in a baseball stadium, Duke had been part of a few exciting bowl games in the past and I figured it would be a high-scoring affair.
This season, Indiana had scored 30 or more points eight times during the regular season and was 6-2 in those games.
The Hoosiers proved they had the capability to hang with some of the best teams in the country.
Indiana gave Ohio State a scare Oct. 3, even leading the Buckeyes in the second half before losing 34-27. After losing a high-scoring affair Oct. 17 on homecoming to Rutgers, 55-52, the Hoosiers went toe-to-toe with Michigan State but fell apart in the second half.
Three weeks later the Hoosiers lost by seven to Michigan before beating Maryland 47-28 and blasting Purdue 54-36.
So on the day after Christmas, the stars seemed aligned for Indiana to get its first bowl win in two decades.
Early in the fourth quarter at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York, kicker Griffin Oaks kicked a 27-yard field goal to extend the Hoosiers’ lead to 34-27.
It didn’t last long, as Duke’s Shaun Wilson scampered 98 yards on the ensuing kickoff and the Blue Devils tied the game.
A Nate Sudfeld-to-Mitchell Paige touchdown pass put the Hoosiers back on top 41-34 with 4:03 remaining. Then with 41 seconds left, the dramatics continued, as Duke capped off a 78-yard scoring drive with a 5-yard touchdown run.
The drama wasn’t done yet.
As good as the game was during regulation — there were 24 total points scored in each of the final three quarters — it will forever be defined by the overtime play that ended it.
Duke kicked a field goal on the opening possession of the extra period, leaving the Hoosiers with an opportunity to score a touchdown to win or a kick a field goal to send it into another overtime period.
Indiana only managed four yards on three plays, leaving Oakes with a 38-yard field goal to tie the game.
From the right hash mark, Oakes’ attempt sailed over the uprights above the goal post and was ruled no good.
While the Blue Devils rushed the field to celebrate their first bowl win since 1961, Oakes and IU coach Kevin Wilson pleaded their case that the kick was indeed good, that it did not go over the post.
“The ball went beyond the end line over the top of the upright and when that occurs, the play is not reviewable,” crew chief Chris Coyte told a reporter.
A heartbreaking loss for the Hoosiers.
All because of a suspect rule.
Hoosier fans, I feel your pain.
It seems during most Detroit Lions games the NFL rulebook for what is a catch gets rewritten, changed to benefit whomever the Lions are playing.
It’s tough to have games go against your team in that fashion.
It just baffles me that Oakes’ kick Saturday could not be reviewed.
Granted, there was no clear camera angle to show whether or not the ball did indeed go through the uprights, just wide or sraight over the goal post.
But therein lies the problem.
On the eve of 2016, technology has come to the point in sports that nearly everything can be seen from multiple angles.
There are even cameras inside the pylons in the NFL.
What comes as a surprise, with the number of cameras installed during every national sporting event — especially football games — is there are still not cameras placed to give a clear view of both sides of the goal post. There is always a camera right in the middle of the goal post, but never with a straight shot at the posts, which seems to be where the most controversy occurs.
See: 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Don’t want to add cameras?
Add a laser, a motion sensor of sorts. Put it on top of the goal posts, and if the plane is broken by the football on a field goal then it is no good.
Then there will be no judgment call as to whether or not the football actually went directly over the upright.
Make the conferences, not the schools, pay for the implementation of any new measures.
As a fan, I’d rather a game take five minutes longer by getting a controversial play correct rather than shortening a game by leaving doubt.
There are ways to ensure the final play from the Pinstripe Bowl doesn’t happen.
Why haven’t these measures been taken?
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