(10-10-2020 07:40 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 06:52 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 06:50 PM)bullet Wrote:  Anybody know the rule on spiking? The Auburn QB spiked it backwards. I would think that should be a fumble. But they ruled it grounding.

Arkansas would have recovered if they didn't call it dead. But if they called it a fumble, Auburn would have to kick from 10-15 yards further back when they finally blew the whistle.

To me, that was clearly a fumble. A backward spike is a fumble. Problem was, nobody recoverd it until well after the whistle blew so you couldn't give ARK the ball.

Here's the deal. It was a backwards pass and therefore a fumble, but it was finally recovered by Auburn, but after the whistle blew. If a lateral fumble the whistle should not have blown and Auburn would have had the ball with under 20 seconds and clock running 8 yards back of where it was spotted. Nix would then have had to spike the ball and Carlson's kick would have been 8 yards longer and rushed.

I think the officials blew the call twice on one play because they blew the whistle and then decided to call it a grounding. Then to make matters worse they ran 10 seconds off of the clock which Arkansas could have declined and had 17 seconds after the kick instead of 7. Because they blew the whistle they couldn't call it a fumble. So two blown calls on one play and then they forgot to ask Arkansas if they wanted to decline the runoff since it was their option on the penalty.

And it was reviewed by instant replay. If we are correct, that is just inexcusable that they didn't know the rules. The Arkansas coach was telling them it was a fumble so they knew the issue.

If you got instant replay, the guy can look up the rulebook.