BYU vs. Washington

BYU managed to pull of a close, but earned win vs. Washington today. Unfortunately, the game will be mired in controversy due to a penalty call against Washington's late rally which ended up in a touchdown with :02 to go in the game. The penalty was for excessive celebration. The TD was not cancelled; however, the yardage penalty was pushed back 15 yards against the extra point, which BYU happened to block to keep Washington from tieing and thereby securing the win.

This game brings up two important points:

1) PAC-10 Refereeing is laughable at best. I am a BYU fan and I will still agree to this. In recent memory, the Huskies have been screwed over several times by PAC-10 Refereeing ineptitude. This penalty was a joke and it did make things tougher for the Huskies, but lets not forget that BYU still earned the block PAT. I'll also recall the USC vs Washington game a few years ago had some clock refereeing issues that cost Washington an upset victory. Every PAC-10 game I see I laugh at how poor the officiating is. It needs some serious help. Thank you ESPN for putting some spotlight finally on it.

2) Lou Holtz is also laughable at best. I can't believe they still let this guy drivel on the table with his nonsense. Lou just last week ripped a Bowling Green linebacker's celebration for a sack which was not excessive but called for as an excessive celebration penalty anyway. Lou strongly sided with the referee call. Now he reverses his support for tough, by-the-book penalties during the BYU game. Pick a side buddy and stick with it. The call was "by the book" so defend it. You're not a politician. Stop flip-flopping, get your stuff together, and generate some consistency for once.

Someone said last week that you get some breaks and you get some bad calls, whether by user error or by bad officiating, but in either case you take what is dealt and work with it.

I sure hope this quote wasn't from Lou Holtz, because he got all fired up over the "ifs and buts" of how things would've been different if the Huskies didn't get penalized for this call. All I can say to Huskies fans is tough luck. Controversy happens, but something like this will disappear for sure. I think the Seattle Seahawks were robbed of a 1st quarter TD vs the Steelers in their last Super Bowl run, made by a slight pushoff (which every receiver does) by Darell Jackson. Maybe that would've completely changed the chemistry of the game. Tough luck. It happens. And it's already forgotten.