Follow-up thoughts on the formation penalty

So the pathetic Pac 10 refs covered their sorry asses after the fact by "clarifying" the call as "illegal formation - not enough men on the line of scrimmage." As you can imagine, this do-over call brings up a number of annoyances.

1. First off, I am not sure I agree with the revised call as not enough men on the line of scrimmage. From all three of the angles below (earliest to latest from top to bottom), it looks like Tucker and Boateng are at the LOS before the snap, with Boateng perhaps the slightest hair off in the first, earliest shot (but that is debatable):







2. There is a logical flaw in the original call that makes it necessarily inconsistent with the revised call. Where no lineman releases (and none did), the original call of illegal man downfield by definition requires a finding that at least two receivers were ON the LOS, but one of them was ineligible. By rule, the players at the LOS who are furthest outside are eligible. Any other receiver both on the LOS and inside of those players, loses his eligibility, i.e. is "covered up."

From the photos, it is clear that the only guy who could have been considered "covered up" and thus illegally downfield, was Ross. That means he had to have been covered up by Boateng (the receiver can only be covered up by a man on his side). That means the refs' original call was that both Ross and Boateng were on the LOS.

So the original call by definition recognized Cal as having 7 men on the line of scrimmage: 5 linemen plus Ross and Boateng. If there were 7 men on the LOS, how can the refs now say they meant to call "not enough men on the line of scrimmage?"

3. If anything, what the refs could perhaps have called is illegal procedure, because Boateng stepped forward slightly toward the LOS, after trying to wave Ross back. This could arguably constitute illegal motion within 1 second of the snap. Pretty debatable call, but at least it would not have been logically inconsistent with their original call.

4. The refs would not have called this penalty had Boateng said nothing. That got the refs' attention, which got the USC coaches' attention, who screamed at the ref. The fact that the ref didn't call out a number pretty much confirms that the ref didn't really know why he was calling it, but knew there was something wrong.

Not blaming Boateng - he had to point it out (though he should have just told Riley to call timeout). But it drives you crazy because Pac 10 refs are dumb enough to have missed this penalty altogether if left to their own devices, but they got tipped off and made a call they didn't even understand. No one notices this kind of thing with WRs. Typically, refs only catch this with TEs and tackles.

5. But the hands down worst part of it all is that this is the QB's job to catch this basic formational problem. QBs know where everyone is supposed to be. Riley should have noticed right away if there was anything "off" about the formation, such as Ross being a hair too close, etc., and fixed it or else call timeout. Especially on a play that Cal had been setting up all night.

This one will eat at Tedford for a long time because he had USC right where he wanted them on that play. You spend a game, and in some ways a season, executing that little screen pass time and again to set up that fake. And then to piss it away on a useless penalty - tragic.