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Parkland -SJP

There’s nothing I have less patience for than complaining about officiating.

The shot D11 had this year would be to merge Easton and Nazareth - they touch, there are definitely parts of Palmer where you can accidentally buy a house in Nazareth if you’re not careful about school lines (the Madsons famously did that in the ‘90s). But give us Peyton Falzone (who is on a visit to Ohio State today - his recruiting is about to blow up as junior film circulates) and Newsome and Wimberly to throw to and as additional defensive backs and we’d take a pretty good swing.

I think the next D11 team that does give it a good shot will have to have a QB like Falzone to do it. I don’t think he’ll have the team around him to do it next year, and he was too young as a 10th grader last year (and that SJP team too good) to make it happen. If you put last year’s Nazareth team with next year’s Falzone, maybe it stays within a couple touchdowns.
 
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Watched the first half to specifically look at the penalties. The first play from scrimmage, SJP RT jumped offsides and for some reason they didn't call it. The first hold in the red zone was a pretty obvious tackle of a linebacker who was shooting a gap. The hold on the QB run, SJP player had his hands full of jersey outside of the shoulder pads... sometimes you get away with that in HS. The hold called on the SJP on the receiver was also pretty straightforward. Hard not to call that right at the point of attack. The illegal man downfield on the Parkland screen was a close call, couldn't tell if the throw was actually over the LOS. I didn't like pass interference call against SJP on the bubble and go, and I didn't think the defensive offsides call was good. They moved but never crossed the LOS.

So basically I thought the SJP offensive penalties looked fair, a couple questionable ones on D. What I didn't look for was non-calls, those are much harder to find...
 
Watched the first half to specifically look at the penalties. The first play from scrimmage, SJP RT jumped offsides and for some reason they didn't call it. The first hold in the red zone was a pretty obvious tackle of a linebacker who was shooting a gap. The hold on the QB run, SJP player had his hands full of jersey outside of the shoulder pads... sometimes you get away with that in HS. The hold called on the SJP on the receiver was also pretty straightforward. Hard not to call that right at the point of attack. The illegal man downfield on the Parkland screen was a close call, couldn't tell if the throw was actually over the LOS. I didn't like pass interference call against SJP on the bubble and go, and I didn't think the defensive offsides call was good. They moved but never crossed the LOS.

So basically I thought the SJP offensive penalties looked fair, a couple questionable ones on D. What I didn't look for was non-calls, those are much harder to find...
You’re the real MVP bucks
 
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There’s nothing I have less patience for than complaining about officiating.

The shot D11 had this year would be to merge Easton and Nazareth - they touch, there are definitely parts of Palmer where you can accidentally buy a house in Nazareth if you’re not careful about school lines (the Madsons famously did that in the ‘90s). But give us Peyton Falzone (who is on a visit to Ohio State today - his recruiting is about to blow up as junior film circulates) and Newsome and Wimberly to throw to and as additional defensive backs and we’d take a pretty good swing.

I think the next D11 team that does give it a good shot will have to have a QB like Falzone to do it. I don’t think he’ll have the team around him to do it next year, and he was too young as a 10th grader last year (and that SJP team too good) to make it happen. If you put last year’s Nazareth team with next year’s Falzone, maybe it stays within a couple touchdowns.
Just curious: does your view about complaining about officiating apply only to high school sports?
Watched the first half to specifically look at the penalties. The first play from scrimmage, SJP RT jumped offsides and for some reason they didn't call it. The first hold in the red zone was a pretty obvious tackle of a linebacker who was shooting a gap. The hold on the QB run, SJP player had his hands full of jersey outside of the shoulder pads... sometimes you get away with that in HS. The hold called on the SJP on the receiver was also pretty straightforward. Hard not to call that right at the point of attack. The illegal man downfield on the Parkland screen was a close call, couldn't tell if the throw was actually over the LOS. I didn't like pass interference call against SJP on the bubble and go, and I didn't think the defensive offsides call was good. They moved but never crossed the LOS.

So basically I thought the SJP offensive penalties looked fair, a couple questionable ones on D. What I didn't look for was non-calls, those are much harder to find...
Bucks, I thought the PI call was very bad. The non-call against the Parkland defender who ran the SJP ball carrier out of bounds was striking in relation to the later roughness/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against SJP.

I don't want to make a big deal of this. Officiating football games has gotten harder now with all the concerns about head injuries. So many hits that we used to regard as clean hits are now 15-yard penalties and lots of what used to go unpunished along the sidelines, especially pushing a runner/receiver out of bounds, are now almost automatically penalized. Also, sometimes when one team is much bigger or faster or simply more talented, it's hard to remain even-handed.
 
Watched the first half to specifically look at the penalties. The first play from scrimmage, SJP RT jumped offsides and for some reason they didn't call it. The first hold in the red zone was a pretty obvious tackle of a linebacker who was shooting a gap. The hold on the QB run, SJP player had his hands full of jersey outside of the shoulder pads... sometimes you get away with that in HS. The hold called on the SJP on the receiver was also pretty straightforward. Hard not to call that right at the point of attack. The illegal man downfield on the Parkland screen was a close call, couldn't tell if the throw was actually over the LOS. I didn't like pass interference call against SJP on the bubble and go, and I didn't think the defensive offsides call was good. They moved but never crossed the LOS.

So basically I thought the SJP offensive penalties looked fair, a couple questionable ones on D. What I didn't look for was non-calls, those are much harder to find...
If refs are primarily watching one team its easy to find issues. 14 penalties for 150 yards is why I get unraveled.
 
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If refs are primarily watching one team its easy to find issues. 14 penalties for 150 yards is why I get unraveled.
Do we know where the crew was from? I think D11 has been really tight this year in a way that’s been unhelpful to flow of the game. Easton-Emmaus in semis had 22 penalties called - I don’t think they were trying to rob either team, but I think if you’re throwing that many flags this late in the season it’s a referee issue not a player issue. Again, being Easton centric, they got a million penalties called this year on wide receivers holding, I think largely because their receivers were 6’4 220 and 6’3 210 and they knocked the hell out of people and refs aren’t used to that and assume flag.

It’s across the board Tulla. The constant “the refs screwed us” at any level is the worst. I’m particularity annnoyed by it right now in professional baseball discourse, but that’s a me problem. I also, not saying you do it, but every single PCL state playoff game always has a ton of complaints in here about officiating, going back 15 years. My in-laws are LaSalle people and there’s never been a well officiated game in LaSalle sports history, so I just assume it’s cultural. But it gets old, particularly as you beat our heads in every year and complain that it should have been worse if the PIAA wasn’t out to get you.
 
Born Index has SJP a 28 point favorite next week against Downingtown West. DTW would be a 4 point underdog to Parkland.

Has PCC as a 12 point favorite over Harrisburg.
 
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Born Index has SJP a 28 point favorite next week against Downingtown West. DTW would be a 4 point underdog to Parkland.
How accurate do you think the Born Index is? I haven't paid much attention to it, but the odd time I have it's usually been way off.

Funny about LaSalle. I've never seen a sideline that tries to work the refs as much as LaSalle does--and it's been that way for years. They always bring up the PI call in the 2015 game against Parkland. I agree it was a bad call but can also think of games where LaSalle benefited from some calls. I thought both LaSalle-SJP games this year were well-officiated. Of course, there are always debatable calls.

SJP plays with more aggression than most teams, so it's not surprising they're usually penalized more than the opposition. From my pro-SJP perspective, it seems that sometimes--not most of the time-- that aggression given refs a license to be less than careful about when they throw a flag,
 
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How accurate do you think the Born Index is? I haven't paid much attention to it, but the odd time I have it's usually been way off.

Funny about LaSalle. I've never seen a sideline that tries to work the refs as much as LaSalle does--and it's been that way for years. They always bring up the PI call in the 2015 game against Parkland. I agree it was a bad call but can also think of games where LaSalle benefited from some calls. I thought both LaSalle-SJP games this year were well-officiated. Of course, there are always debatable calls.

SJP plays with more aggression than most teams, so it's not surprising they're usually penalized more than the opposition. From my pro-SJP perspective, it seems that sometimes--not most of the time-- that aggression given refs a license to be less than careful about when they throw a flag,
Born is just the only way I’ve seen that tries to power rate teams to compare them, versus Eric Epler at PennLive throwing some darts based on last year’s playoff results, and just substituting teams in as they win. I think human rankings are consistently skewed towards D1 and D3 because they get an automatic berth into the state semis.

The LaSalle complaint I always get from that Parkland game is the pass interference was on an uncatchable ball which…was not a high school rule in 2015. Or the roughing the punter call in ‘09 Easton-LaSalle where LaSalle should have been allowed to crush the punter because “he moved forward before he kicked it, so he’s a runner” which also is just blatantly not the way the rules work. I digress.

But SJP is 27-3 in out of district playoff games if my math is correct. And yet, I’d say in 20 of them one of the first three comments in here is “refs were trying to screw us”. The combination of domination and whining is off putting, even if there is a vast conspiracy to hold SJP under 60 in playoff games.

How much of it is the way games are officiated around the state? Like I said, I thought D11 had an emphasis on holding on the perimeter this year, in a way I didn’t necessarily like, but it was how games were officiated. I know the whims of statewide football much less (our District only gets the one D12 game in the playoffs) than I know wrestling, but I can tell you at the state tournament, if you have a D3 official, they’re not going to call stalling on the top guy ever, and you have to work your tail off to get out. D7 guys will bang you for stalling very quickly on your feet. D11 refs let scrambles go forever without stalemates, etc. People get worked up about it (particularly when Central Dauphin was at their peak) but it’s just the way of the world.
 
Born is just the only way I’ve seen that tries to power rate teams to compare them, versus Eric Epler at PennLive throwing some darts based on last year’s playoff results, and just substituting teams in as they win. I think human rankings are consistently skewed towards D1 and D3 because they get an automatic berth into the state semis.

The LaSalle complaint I always get from that Parkland game is the pass interference was on an uncatchable ball which…was not a high school rule in 2015. Or the roughing the punter call in ‘09 Easton-LaSalle where LaSalle should have been allowed to crush the punter because “he moved forward before he kicked it, so he’s a runner” which also is just blatantly not the way the rules work. I digress.

But SJP is 27-3 in out of district playoff games if my math is correct. And yet, I’d say in 20 of them one of the first three comments in here is “refs were trying to screw us”. The combination of domination and whining is off putting, even if there is a vast conspiracy to hold SJP under 60 in playoff games.

How much of it is the way games are officiated around the state? Like I said, I thought D11 had an emphasis on holding on the perimeter this year, in a way I didn’t necessarily like, but it was how games were officiated. I know the whims of statewide football much less (our District only gets the one D12 game in the playoffs) than I know wrestling, but I can tell you at the state tournament, if you have a D3 official, they’re not going to call stalling on the top guy ever, and you have to work your tail off to get out. D7 guys will bang you for stalling very quickly on your feet. D11 refs let scrambles go forever without stalemates, etc. People get worked up about it (particularly when Central Dauphin was at their peak) but it’s just the way of the world.
I just really enjoy watching a football game without all the flags no matter who is playing.
 
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