Poll Result: OSU Fans (Unsurprisingly) Blame the Referees For the OSU Loss Saturday

I promise this is it. We are moving on after this post. It’s time for Pittsburgh. But first let’s look back on the poll I threw out there right after the game on Saturday. There was plenty of blame to go around, but you guys unsurprisingly ultimately blamed the referees for the way OSU lost.

Here’s the final poll. I’m actually surprised it was this close — I would have expected it to be more like 90 percent on the referees. I think I land on blaming the referees despite Gundy’s bit of incompetence (x2) at the end. Despite Gundy thinking the referees would just wink wink at the intentional grounding penalty his QB incurred, the game still should have been over.

It’s Gundy’s fault for putting them in a position where this was a question, but it’s not his fault that the rules were not followed. That’s on the zebras. So you can blame Gundy for setting up and the defense for not shutting it down, but neither would have mattered if one of the 10 referees knew the rule that should have ended the game.

Gundy keeps talking about how his decision was a bad one, but he’s letting the outcome of the game affect the way he’s talking about it. Dumb? Absolutely. One he probably should not do again? Definitely. But it technically was not a “bad” one because it technically should have ended the game.

Curious who everyone holds at fault for the final play today … this will be an interesting discussion on Sunday.

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) September 10, 2016

Here are the reader comments.

Russell James: Gundy. 100% Gundy. That dunce didn’t even know the rule that we got screwed on. Why experiment with something that no one ever does? Especially in a close game. And if you do, you can’t run a receiver down the sideline? My wife has been watching football for all of 6 years and she turned to me and said, “Isn’t they intentional grounding?” And Gundy didn’t even think about that penalty being called. Don’t invite that kind of opportunity. Go get a haircut. A 1-1 coach that loses to mid-majors doesn’t get to have a mullet. Mullets are for closers only.

No Name: If you choose to practice this play for years (Zac Robinson confirmed) how do you get paid what gundy gets paid and NOT know its legit? He had zero objection to refs and their call…How? Total incompetence on Gundy. It’s embarrassing…

Wilham: This is not where we should be five years after the Fiesta Bowl and Boone Pickens’ huge investment in our school and footbal program. This reminds me of the Jim Stanley teams that lost to North Texas State and the like. I’ve always been a big Gundy fan, but maybe it’s time for a clean sweep of the coaching staff. If we can’t get someone better, we should at least be able to get someone just as good for a lot less money.

David Einstein: Refs. Gundy isn’t responsible for refs not knowing the rules.

Jane: I am the biggest Gundy homer ever, and in no way do I want any other head coach for OSU, but this one is on him, imo.
As soon as Rudolph threw that stupid pass to no one, I said, “Why are they throwing an intentional grounding?”
Couldn’t they have had just ONE receiver run down toward it and pretend they were trying to catch it? That would have taken care of everything and we’d be 2-0.

No Name: Defense needs to learn how to defend an obvious hook and lateral play. It was like they had never seen it before. Clueless. Then we could gripe about the refs. But since we couldn’t stop a MAC team from completing this “hail mary”, we just look like a bunch of whiners.