Sometimes even replay officials get a call wrong.
Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward was flagged for targeting on Maryland receiver Taivon Jacobs in the first half of Saturday’s game between the Buckeyes and the Terrapins. The photo above is one snapshot of the play in question. The penalty was upheld after review and Ward was ejected from the game.
Speaking on Tuesday’s weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference, OSU head coach Urban Meyer was asked about the call and whether he had heard back about it from the Big Ten.
It turns out that Ohio State wasn’t just going to sit by and wait, as they included it in their weekly tape of questionable calls sent to the B1G offices.
“What you do is you turn it in each week and we’ll have a guy on our staff call the Big Ten officiating,” Meyer explained. “And the report back was that on the field it was a snap judgment, but the replay official was in error. So we’re going to reward Denzel Ward today at practice for a caused fumble. He should not have been ejected and it was mistaken.”
Not only should Ward not have been ejected, the play should have been allowed to continue, which would have ended in a forced fumble by Ward and a fumble return for a touchdown by him as well. Instead, he was ejected for his troubles.
Fortunately for the Buckeyes, the game was never in doubt, but one day it might be, and that scenario absolutely concerns Urban Meyer.
“Concerned. Irate. All of the above,” he said. “And it’s not the person on the field. Those are snap judgments. You can’t… I still to this day I don’t understand how that happens, but that’s for the higher ups to figure out. Yeah, of course. ‘Concerned’ is probably not strong enough.”