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So I will admit up front that I am an avid SE fan. But I wanted to make a few comments on the SE vs Harding game. First it was an amazing game. At no point did you get the feeling that either team was definately going to win. In the first half the SE defense did a really good job of locking down the Harding offense. Other than a few big plays they had them stuffed pretty good. At the same time the SE offense was moving the ball pretty handily. The second half was a different story. Harding's defense locked down the SE offense for most of the half. The SE defense was also beginning to crack. I beleive they were just gassed from the non stop pounding of that run game. Now onto the final drive. As someone who watched live and also 2 other times on film I have a pretty good grasp on what happened. On the play where it appeared to possibly be intentional grounding. It was a designed screen pass and the running back ended up on the ground behind his convoy of blockers. As is the case on any screen pass the defensive line was on a jailbreak to the Quarterback. Hatley saw the play was toast because his intended target the RB was still on the ground so he simply threw it into the turf in the general vicinity of the down RB. There was a referee standing directly behind the down RB and he pointed out that there was an eligable receiver in the area. Point two on the targeting call. I 100% agree it could have been called a simple personal foul or targeting. But, the defender did come in full speed and dropped his head causing a helmet to helmet. The officials had no choice but to throw the flag. So there was no controversy on whether it was a penalty or not only whether it was targeting or not. So either way the drive would have continued on the penalty. Now I'm not saying that if these teams met again that the outcome would have been the same. It was that close. Either team had the ability to win that game up to the end. It just so happened that SE pretty much had the ball last. Now they did kick it back with 46 seconds left but the Harding offense was pinned deep in their own territory and it is just not built to pass. That was very obvious the final 3 or 4 plays. Their offensive line had no idea how to pass block and SE swarmed their QB almost immediatley before he had any chance to throw the ball.
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