re: Not making excuses for poor play, but can we all agree the officiating was a disgrace?

Miss St won the game, and for all we know, might beat LSU 9 out of 10 times this year. That's settled and done.

I think the OP is attempting to discuss officiating. I personally took issue with the penalties called on our scoring plays. Both of those calls can only be made from an official using a microscope.

We are talking about a sport that unfortunately involves an amount of subjectiveness that easily affects its outcomes. Case in point. Clemson is the defending national champion based on an obvious pick play at the goal line with a receiver showing obvious intent.

The precedence set by that official in Starkville Sat night essentially forbids any crossing routes when defenders are in press coverage. Sullivan was as surprised by the contact as much as the defender was. Poor defensive alignment and coverage assignments led to LSU executing a perfectly timed big play.

My point is that if what happened on that play is consistently called it will eliminate press coverage and/or crossing routes altogether when two receivers are aligned on same side. This will NEVER happen. It was a terrible decision by the official.

And I also feel that if no discretion was given to Chark on his first holding penalty, which I honestly can't see at all from my DVR, there will never be any blocks successfully made by a receiver isolated on a DB. But, of course I know this call too will never be consistently made.

The cynic in me thinks that these calls were subconsciencly made due to Miss St being the perceived underdog, which we now know was not the actual case.