Oregon Ducks running back Mar'Keise Irving is pushed out of bound by Washington State Cougars defensive back Derrick Langford Jr. in the first half at Gesa Field at Martin Stadium. James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

Referees make incredible mistake in Oregon-Washington State game

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated 9/24/22

The officiating crew in Saturday’s game between the Oregon Ducks and Washington State Cougars made quite the mess of the aftermath of an intentional grounding penalty.

The Cougars were called for intentional grounding on a first down play early in the second quarter, which should have come with a loss of down. Somehow, the officiating crew took away an extra down from Washington State, and the drive went directly to third down.

The play that resulted in intentional grounding was quite clearly first down.

I just went back & watched the plays before the punt & it is true that the refs got it wrong because the intentional grounding play happened on a 1st down and it should have been 2nd after that penalty but they set it to 3rd. But it should have been caught sooner. pic.twitter.com/zVeWiIpJzR

— B (@ThatVegasGuy58) September 24, 2022

Nobody seemed to question it when Washington State came out after that on 3rd and 17. They ran a draw, then punted, only for the officiating crew to realize their error and go back to third down to try to make it right.

1st-and-10 — intentional grounding
2nd down — *GETS SKIPPED OVER*
3rd/17 — 1-yard draw
4th down — punt to 5-yard line

*refs review*

THEN IT GOES BACK TO 3rd/17

Wazzu runs a draw. Again. Then punts. Again.

What a joke, man lol.

— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) September 24, 2022

In short, Washington State punted twice, but only one of them counted because they were robbed of a down on the actual drive by the officials. They got it right in the end — sort of — but made a real mess of it from start to finish.

Amazingly, this has happened before, though in another recent instance the error was never corrected. Perhaps the Cougars should consider themselves fortunate that someone was clued into the issue here.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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