BYU Cougars Beat Washington Huskies 28-27

I have been reading a lot of online posts about Jake Locker's penalty because he threw the football in the air after the touchdown to presumably tie the game. The Washington Huskies were assessed a fifteen yard penalty on the extra point attempt.

I can absolutely understand why Huskies fans are upset. That play should have not got the flag as it did in an ideal world. It would be nice if the NCAA would let people play the game and not worry about if someone spikes a ball because they are happy they scored. This doesn't really augment the game too much. Yes, the NFL's players can take the celebrations too far. But this was a far cry from using the pylon to putt the football, or taking out a cell phone and calling someone. This was very tame.

But I also think some things must be said:

1. I can understand if your team returns a football the length of the field on the last play and someone gets called for an illegal block that never happened. If that play would have won you the game it would have cost you the game. It is hard to deny that. But give me a break-anyone who thinks this cost them the game must have turned the TV off right there and thought they didn't get a PAT kick. If he hits that routine chip shot they tie the game. There would be almost no discussion of this right now if he just would have hit the shot. Even more, if he would have been short that may have been a reason to say the penalty was too costly, but the kick was not short, IT GOT BLOCKED. BYU blocked the kick. I have heard about arguments about trajectory but give me a break, what percentage of kicks from that far away are blocked, 1%? If that.

2. Furthermore, BYU had the same penalty assessed right after the play. It just wasn't as costly for them. If something bad would have happened to BYU because of this play would we have reason to complain. Jake Locker broke the rules just as much as BYU did, we just didn't have it matter as much because of circumstances. The refs were calling it fair.

3. Let's say Jake Locker throws that football down instead of straight up in the air. That would have been a HUGE spike. There would be no discussion. So should the rule be that you only are penalized if you throw the ball in any direction but down? Of course not. If you use the football as part of your celebration you are penalized. Jake Locker threw the football high in the air, and he used the ball to celebrate. That is clearly illegal. If spiking the ball is illegal, clearly that is also. Did that hurt the Washington Huskies, of course it did. I think it hurt them more mentally than anything else. But again, BYU Cougars had the same penalty right after and fortunately it didn't happen to hurt them as much as it did the Washington Huskies.

If BYU had lost the game because of this I would be upset. But I would be much more upset about that blocked PAT than I would have been about the penalty. I would have wondered why our guys could not block enough on the most crucial play of the game. Should the rule be amended, I don't know. If you say they can throw the ball in the air how can you make it so they can't spike it? Direction isn't that important. The NCAA rule has to either be that you can't use the ball to celebrate at all, or you can, it can't be both ways.

On a side note, Jake Locker is an incredible runner. He missed some extremely wide open guys during the course of the game, but he can always get you a first down. The problem is that with Jake Locker you can't really rely on his arm, because it is inaccurate. If you just have him run all the time than people won't respect your team. They definitely won't respect your throw and they will focus all their attention on your runners. Jake Locker seems to suffer from the same ailments as Michael Vick and Vince Young--extremely one dimensional.