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

Yes

The first targeting was not questionable. He lowered his head and hit the QB in the head with the crown of his helmet. That is textbook targeting.

The Farrel targeting was not targeting. Call it a late hit, fine, but it wasn't targeting. He hit him inadvertently in the facemask with his facemask.

As someone mentioned before, the problem with having the reputation as a penalty-prone team is that the refs come into the game looking to penalize you. It's a positive feedback loop.

Most of the time the officiating is a disgrace. This time was no exception.

Was there any product on the field, without a Bulldog, that was positive. Coaching, tackling, blocking, passing, catching on the LSU side was all substandard for winning games.

One play I noticed was an obvious block in the back on a long punt return for MSU that wasn't called. Happened right in front of the return man at midfield, but it is what it is. Still, LSU would have needed to play a lot better than it did for officiating to play a role in the outcome of the game. If officiating had gone the way LSU would have liked it, the final score might have been 30-14.

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.

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You have those backwards.

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I don't.

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I don'

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So you think Donnie Alexander launching the crown of his helmet into the head of Williams was a questionable targeting call?