BSD Film Room: Deus ex machina

Forget about the officiating, or lack thereof, from Saturday night's contest.  Film Room counted 10 separate horrendous calls, or non calls, about which Penn State fans could complain.  The Buckeye faithful, too, were dealt a handful themselves, without a doubt.

Ultimately, it's not the fault of John O'Neill and his five mouth breathing dolts in black and white stripes.  It's the conference's fault.  The Big Ten operates a $100M tax exempt cabal, and tolerates this ten-cent clown show to officiate it.  The referee of the conference's lead crew lives outside of Ann Arbor, owns the nickname "Dave Witvoerine" from more than one fanbase for his ham-handed gaffes, and Jim Delany could not care less.

Two years ago the SEC suspended an entire crew for poor performance in the middle of the season.  Last year the PAC12 issued an apology following the debacle at the end of the Wisconsin at Arizona State game.  The Big Ten isn't alone in harboring morons in white capri pants and knee-high socks.

But what does the Big Ten do, by comparison?  Nothing.  Nothing could disturb Mortimer Duke in his Chicago office, until incessant media hounding for some explanation to the Greek tragedy prompted the crotchety old bastard to issue "an explanation" - not an apology, of course, and more of a proclamation - through his PR staff on Monday afternoon, which included the ultimate piss-off-plebes line of them all: "a breakdown of officiating mechanics occurred".

Sweet baby Jesus in garanimals.

If you can't fix it, Big Ten, then fine.  But dump the sanctimony and the out-of-nowhere, cleared by Legal, summary 'explanations'.  The players, coaches, and millions of alumni deserve better.

Kill The Lights

Here are some of those alums, by the way.  Turn up the volume for this video, and listen to the background as the Beaver Stadium crowd blasts "I Believe That We Will Win".  Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, and former Big Ten ref Bill Lemonnier are trying to help the turd officials straighten out yet another screw up at the end of regulation, in the foreground.  But the Penn State faithful ignored all of that, and dropped the winning chant at the perfect moment.  Twice.  Pretty sweet.

Hit The Lights

Links to all defense and all offense, from both halves, at bottom.  Take a look, drop questions in the comments, and we'll try to get them answered next week.

Special shout out to Angelo Mangiro, who played Center, Left Guard, and Right Tackle in the same half.

All Offense First Half.  All Offense Second Half.  All Defense First Half. All Defense Second Half.