Saturday afternoon’s Tennessee vs. Georgia game could have changed because of one play in the first quarter. When Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett ran for the team’s first touchdown, it was quite obvious that targeting could have been called against a Tennessee player.
It wasn’t called and the player was allowed to stay in the game. Although it didn’t have a factor in this game so far, former NFL referee Terry McAulay tweeted out it should have been called.
“I did a long thread on the rules change regarding the crown of the helmet. I’ll add this play to the thread. This was most certainly a targeting foul since the rule’s inception. Apparently no longer. #PlayerSafety?”
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As many have pointed out Saturday, this was the same crew who officiated the Alabama/Tennessee game three weeks ago. In that game, there were plenty of questionable calls including a hit on Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, which looked like an apparent missed targeting or roughing the quarterback call by these same officials.
CBS rules expert Gene Steratore agreed with the no-call.
“I don’t think he leads enough with the crown or contacts with the crown,” he said. “There’s some there, but I think he’s leading with the shoulder. There is a piece of the crown there, though, on that. What they’ll look at now, and we’ll listen to what Jason Autrey has to say, is if he’s attacking with the crown of that helmet. I don’t think he is, personally.”
The no-call didn’t affect the outcome of the game as some claimed a lot of bad calls did affect the outcome of the Alabama/Tennessee game.
