While the officiating has been horrendous all year on our front seven, especially for the DL. We've had pretty good calls on the secondary but they haven't been attacked a lot and have been technically excellent which makes them hard to penalize. But I've seen the DL being wrangled like a damn bull or fully tackled multiple times and not get the blatant hold call and, because they are well trained and rotated/rested beasts, they either still make a play, almost make a play or cause pressure. Sometimes they'll be completely taken out of the play by being tackled or held out of position. No call.
It is BS because we get none of the same treatment for our OL. We get called for barely holding when our hands are in good position and we get called some when we disengage quickly. We get very borderline illegal touching and ineligible man downfield calls that are questionable. Meanwhile, the refs ignore Pearce getting grabbed and tackled from from behind in the endzone just before he can blast Milroe from the blind side for a safety. It worked out but that extra 2 points could have been huge if Bama scored a TD on one of their several remaining plays. Hell, Bama's OL made a couple of pre-snap penalties that we got weirdly called against us and at least 5+ pretty obvious holds, their nickel or safety was no-called for the face mask on Brazzel's TD (which was def seen as the tug happened just as the ball was arriving). That would have given us first and goal instead of 4th down had Brazzel bobbled it instead of securing the ball.
I realize that Bama was heavily penalized, the close Pearce jump on the sack went our way and Gibson didn't get double personal fouls called. But those constant Bama holds and the Brazell face mask could have been game changing but our guys made the plays anyway to overcome the officiating. That should never happen with the tech available now that could analyze every play in real-time and alert on penalties missed or mistakes on penalty calls. Refs could easily have tablet screens available or even attached to their uniform somewhere so they can get an alert, immediately have the best angle still pic or short clip sent to their tablet showing the needed change and mistakes can be corrected in seconds. I have more thoughts on how that should be implemented but in a different post.
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