Late Hits: Officiating crew had a bad day at Clemson

Let’s talk about the officials.

Officials are a part of football, and they have an effect on the outcome of each game.

We can all agree on this without resorting to name-calling or concocting a conspiracy theory.

And officials, just like players or coaches, can have bad games. Jeff Flanagan’s crew, regularly one of the best in the ACC, had a tough game on Saturday at Clemson.

After re-watching the Tigers’ 24-17 overtime win over the Wolfpack, the issue wasn’t that Flanagan’s crew called the first 13 penalties of the game on N.C. State. Six of those penalties were for false starts by the offensive line, so that’s not evidence of an orchestrated effort to help one team or hurt the other.

The problem was the consistency of calls. The only thing we can ask from officials, in any sport, is consistency. Mistakes are going to happen, and more and more, those mistakes are able to be cleaned up by video review.

Coaches, players and fans have to live with mistakes. What officials have to do is try their best to be consistent. That’s much easier said than done, but Flanagan’s crew struggled with this on Saturday.

For sure, Flanagan’s crew got far more calls correct than wrong. And there were plenty of officiating decisions that affected Clemson, Dravious Wright’s first-quarter hit of running back Wayne Gallman tops that list, but two no-calls, in particular, hurt N.C. State.

On Clemson’s second possession in the first quarter, N.C. State cornerback Mike Stevens was flagged for pass interference on Clemson receiver Mike Williams. Stevens made enough contact with Williams to warrant a penalty. That third-down call helped extend the drive which ended with a Clemson field goal.

On N.C. State’s next series, Clemson’s Ryan Carter bumped receiver Bra’Lon Cherry before the ball got to Cherry. The pass attempt ended with an interception by Clemson’s K’Von Wallace.

If it’s a foul on Stevens, then it should have been a foul on Carter. You can’t change the interpretation of the rules from series to series.

On N.C. State’s second possession of the second half, on third-and-goal from the Clemson 19, Clemson safety Van Smith grabbed the facemask of N.C. State fullback Jaylen Samuels after Samuels caught a screen pass at Clemson’s 18-yard line.

N.C. State should have been given a first down at Clemson’s 9. There was no flag on the play. Christian Wilkins subsequently blocked Kyle Bambard’s 37-yard field goal.

Two field goals, six points. Given N.C. State’s kicking, those are valuable points in a tight game.

You can’t call every penalty nor can you expect the officials to get every call right. But you can expect the officials to be consistent and that simply wasn’t the case on Saturday at Clemson.

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Late Hits: Officiating crew had a bad day at Clemson."