Maryland ruined NC State’s chances to play in the ACC Championship game with 38-31 win in College Park on Saturday.
With a victory over the Terps, No. 21-ranked N.C. State would have advanced to the league’s title game, but the Wolfpack’s upset loss gave Florida State the Atlantic Division title outright and a berth into Saturday’s conference championship game in Charlotte.
Trailing 38-17, NC State staged a furious comeback in cutting the Maryland lead to 38-31 late in the fourth quarter. Facing a 4th-and-1 with 38 seconds left and the ball on the Wolfpack 32-yard-line, the Terps elected not to punt.
A dive play by Maryland running back D.J. Adams apparently gained the necessary single yard needed for officials to award the Terps a first down - ruining NC State’s comeback bid. But video replay of that 4th down play tells a different story.
A sideline video camera angle revealed that Adams never reached the first down marker. In fact, he wasn’t even close before his forward progress was stopped by the Wolfpack defense.
NC State Coach Tom O’Brien told the RALEIGH NEWS-OBSERVER after the game that he thought Adams was stopped short on the play.
“It sure looked like [we stopped them] from where we were, and we were right on the chains. But that was the call and it was confirmed, so I guess it wasn’t a stop. We thought we had him stopped, but my opinion doesn’t count.”
O’Brien said the players in the locker room were “crushed” after they fell with so much at stake.
Crushed? Wait ’til they see the video.
12:55 am on November 28th, 2010
That first down line is unofficial anyway.
1:14 am on November 28th, 2010
They lost the game because they were down 38-17. However, that missed call was deplorable and NC St. should have had another set of downs. In full disclosure, I am a huge FSU fan, yet do sympathize with NC St. They had a terrific season and neither they nor FSU would/will beat VT at this point.
1:38 am on November 28th, 2010
“That first down line is unofficial anyway.”
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The yellow line on TV, but it appears that the green line above is perfectly lined up with the first down marker.
5:17 am on November 28th, 2010
Brooks - check out the replay botch at the end of the byu vs. Utah game…byu db intercepts a pass and then the ball is stripped after his knee was clearly down. Ruled fumble on the field and booth won’t overturn. Next utah scores gw td.
9:59 am on November 28th, 2010
The line in the picture above is the official first down chain, not the line on TV. So the picture is official.
11:13 am on November 28th, 2010
Terrible call. After this video ends, the Adams sank into the pile with the ball clutched to his numbers. No reach forward, no first down.
What’s even worse is that they did review this play, but only for 30 seconds. Ron Cherry is a terrible head ref.
11:15 am on November 28th, 2010
This kind of officiating put NC State at an unfair disadvantage regarding such a crucial play and shows a clear bias. There need to be some SERIOUS consequences for Ron Cherry.
12:46 pm on November 28th, 2010
38 seconds left? Yes, they screwed up, but it didn’t matter
2:42 pm on November 28th, 2010
The ACC replay booth rarely overturns a call made on the field by the officials.
4:30 pm on November 28th, 2010
Anything is possible with Russell Wilson and the ball at the 33…even with 38 seconds left.
1:34 am on November 29th, 2010
I’d like to think NC got screwed, but the film seems to be taken from a deceptive angle.
In order for the first down line to appear straight up and down (as it appears in the video), the video camera would have to be EXACTLY across the field from the first down marker on the other side.
That’s pretty unlikely on its face, that the camera would be right on top of the first down marker. But there’s some pretty good video evidence that its not.
Go to 0:13 in the video, and compare the green first down line to the white yard marker just to its right. If the camera was lined up perfectly, the green and white lines should be almost exactly parallel — but they’re not. They’re at a slight angle to each other.
They only appear to be off parallel by a few degrees, but with the runner that close to the first down marker, a few degrees would be all it would take to skew the video.
Based on the direction the camera is MOVING during the recording (that’s why the editor had to keep adjusting the green lines), it looks like the camera is set up to the LEFT of the first down marker.
But you know who’s NOT moving? The ref.
The ref — for as much as I’d like to harangue him — is dead-on with the first down marker at all times. If anyone had a perfect line of sight, it was this guy.
TL;DR Video was taken at an angle, possibly deceptive. Ref likely got it right.
2:25 am on November 29th, 2010
I’m sorry but the angle would not have been off THAT much and if you look at 0:14 and you compare the green line and white line then the white line is actually at an angle that is away from the runner. The white line is a little bit more to the right. The angle is working against the runner and not with the runner so your logic is faulted and yes the ref is moving… If anything then the green line should be angled to the right a little bit which is away from the runner. Either way, he barely got back to the line of scrimmage but was awarded the first down. Horrible call.
NC State should have never let it come to this but the refs have to let the players freaking play. There are MARYLAND fans who said it was a bad call and even rival fans who said it was a bad call. I’m not saying that NC State would have come back but the momentum was going for State and no one knows what would have happened but this bad call killed any chance for State to come back.
11:56 am on November 29th, 2010
Anyone who has the game DVR’d will clearly see that the ball was orgininally spotted outside of the 41 yd lines at the beginning of the drive.
They will also see that either b/c of the camera angle or the placement of the chains when they were moved back from the sideline, it ilooked like the first down line was INSIDE the 31 yd line per the chains (about a 1/2 td off), which was incorrect.
When they brought out the chains (the only official way of determining a first down), the chains correctly measured out that the first down was outside of the 31.
Anyone using video from an unknown angle and using the unofficial placement of the chains on the sidelines to determine whether or not a first down was obtained doesnt know much about football.
4:15 pm on November 29th, 2010
Amazing how many NCSU fans want to focus on that one call. How about several others poor calls that went their way, including the “non-play” that turned intoa play that set up their last TD? That 4th down play did not cost them the game. As someone previously indicated, getting behind 38-17 late in the 4th cost them the game. Get over it!
7:37 pm on November 29th, 2010
WWW.RONCHERRYSUCKS.COM
9:19 am on November 30th, 2010
IT WAS 38-31!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ARE YOU RETARDED?
IT WAS 4th down, 38-31, with a minute left. IT’S KIND OF IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAY OF THE GAME AND IT WAS AN EXTREMELY OBVIOUS TERRIBLE CALL. They didn’t even attempt to check the spot…..they reviewed it for less than a minute.
All NCSU had to do was get a 3 & out, they had 3 timeouts. They got the stop, used all of their timeouts, and then on 4th down, Maryland went for it and got stoned. Everybody watching, including the broadcasters, thought that it wasn’t even close until the chains came out.