There is certainly a lot of blame on Wisconsin. As in why didn't the O-line and the entire team set up to spike the ball. They were just kinda standing around until it was too late. They finally tried to get into formation when the clock got under 5 seconds, when it was too late.
The Wisconsin QB has to take some blame. You just don't put a ball down like that before a whistle has blown. You kneel and hold onto the ball until you give it to an official.
Funny how it seems to work out that way... I'm sure there are plenty of coaching screw-ups we don't hear about. LSU is not the only team to ever mismanage the clock.
If Miles told his QB to run another play with :18 and no time outs that far inside FG range (30 yds), and told the QB to place the ball on the ground and walk away from it instead of clearly kneeling down to end the play, you're damn well right I would blame him and call him a moron. Because he would have just lost a game for the team due to stupidity. I don't blame the refs, I blame whoever thought that was a good idea. Either the QB or the coach who told him to do it. The problem was putting a situation like that in the hands of someone else (refs) when you could have just won the game and gone home. As much as some Tiger fans love to blame bad SEC refs for some of our shortcomings, the blame should rest with those putting the game in a situation where referees come into play to decide an outcome rather than gameplay.
Let's make this perfectly clear, the refs should have called a delay of game on ASU. Ultimately. But yes, Wisconsin kinda botched it all up.
I disagree Izzy, with .18 left you either throw to the end zone or you kick it from there with no time outs. It appears that Wisconsin had not yet Murphy before last night, they know who he is now.
I agree with everything everyone is saying about how Wisconsin could have done this better, but in the end, the ref has an unobstructed view of the play, and there is no excuse for him not seeing the QB take a knee. But yes, the QB should not have popped up and put the ball down until he heard a whistle. Looked to me like he knew ASU was going to come after him, and didn't want to be a sitting duck for a cheap shot. So he popped up like you usually see quarterbacks do in victory formation.
I watched it live and had to rewind several times to see what happened. I watched again today. This time i did see his knee barely grazed the ground briefly and he popped up and placed the ball on the ground (why not toss it to the ref?) They did blow the whistle quickly with plenty of time left. But Arizona St. players tied up blocking just saw the ball on the ground and dived to cover it. Which they should have done. It did take too long to get the ball placed and ready for play. Refs didn't do a great job. But calling delay on ASU for covering a loose ball would have been wrong. I still maintain the majority of the fault lies with the UW coaches for the boneheaded decision to center the ball and the boneheaded QB for leaving the ball on the ground like an idiot instead of tossing it to the ref to spot it.
If you clearly hear the whistle blow the play dead and the ASU players are just hovering over the ball not allowing the refs to prepare for the next play, that's a delay of game penalty every time. I give ASU credit for being smart in doing that, however. It's the only way they were going to win the game.
