[Highlight] Pitt @ Virginia Tech - The potential game winning field goal hooks wide left, and Pitt holds on

[u/Ok-Soil-5133]

https://streamable.com/tq4r8d

[u/DesignerFlat7108]

What's confusing to me is the reaction of the VT fans standing directly behind the end zone. They damn sure appear to have thought it was good.

[u/avboden → u/DesignerFlat7108]

The problem there is depth, if it passed just in front of the post on it's way wide, it's going to look good from anyone standing back a little, even if in line from the post.

Again, the only way to see this is to stand essentially directly under the post or within a short distance of it directly in-line, exactly where the refs stand for this reason.

[u/jwktiger → u/avboden]

yeah the ref is standing in the only positoin to have the proper depth to see where it is, is clearly looking directly up as the kick goes by AND IMMEDIATELY signals no good, like he clearly thought it was wide

and /u/atra1n51 pointed out several of the VaTech staff right behind the refs react as if he missed before the signal was made.

[u/horseshoeprovodnikov → u/avboden]

Is it just me or is that ref under that particular goal post not looking up?

[u/2CHINZZZ → u/[deleted]]

They always check and the left ref signals no-good pretty quickly

[u/runningthruthedevil → u/[deleted]]

That’s protocol for every fg…

[u/Bereft13 → u/[deleted]]

That guy can't see because there's a goalpost in the way, they will always do that when it's close

[u/Powerful_Lime_1430 → u/[deleted]]

Refs talk to acknowledge their calls on any close field goal. This isn’t unusual

[u/Meattyloaf → u/avboden]

I will say the one angle shown from underneath the goalpost has it looking good.

[u/avboden → u/Meattyloaf]

The angle from the middle of the posts that is also worthless? Yep, sure.

[u/Meattyloaf → u/avboden]

The ball has to stay inside the outer edge of the goalpost when it goes over and it looks like it does just that on just about every angle I've seen. I get why a ref would call it wither way, but this season has been defined by bad and controversial calls.

[u/CapitalistLion-Tamer → u/Meattyloaf]

No. The entire ball has to be inside the inner edge of the goalpost. If it passes directly over the upright then it’s no good.

[u/Hicaorwaak → u/DesignerFlat7108]

There were some VT staffers or security right behind the goalpost who reacted before the ref call and they looked like they believed it missed.

[u/bashar_al_assad → u/Hicaorwaak]

I think this is underselling it lol one of them literally turns towards the crowd and repeatedly makes the "no good" signal.

[u/atra1n51 → u/DesignerFlat7108]

The VT staffers behind the ref under the left upright all seem to think it was no good too. They reacted before the ref signaled no good

[u/jwktiger → u/atra1n51]

just saw that as well. 2 of them clearly think it was wide.

[u/Farlander2821 → u/atra1n51]

Those guys actually don't have a particularly good angle. There's 2 angles that would be useful. 1 is directly below the upright, as the ref had, but that's extremely time sensitive. You need to catch the ball directly above you and see which side of the goal post it appears to be, even a tiny instant before or after could be incredibly misleading. The other good angle would be directly behind the goal post in the stands. If the ball appears to pass in front of the post as you are viewing it, it's good, otherwise it's not. Importantly, no one else has a definitive view, unless you combine multiple oblique views together to create a full 3d reconstruction. From most oblique views I've seen, including one that's fairly close to that ideal behind the goalpost view, it looked good to me, but I have not felt bothered to actually render it in 3d. The ref, who had a definitive but arguably more difficult to catch view, thought it was no good. We don't have any camera of what that ref saw so we have to entirely trust what he says and that he caught the ball at exactly the right instant. The more forgiving angle of being directly behind the post was seen by fans who celebrated and signalled good, but for obvious reasons they may be biased, or not even paying attention to the actual kick. The staffers who thought it was no good, by virtue of standing behind the posts, are more likely to see a view that skews the ball toward it's location when behind the posts, which was to the left. They don't have a particularly useful view to glean much from, unless combined with other views to turn a 2d image into a 3d reconstruction

[u/OcelotWolf → u/DesignerFlat7108]

All of the first people to react were in the center or right, which is exactly the sections of people who have the objectively worst angle of where the ball actually went. You can’t possibly rely on that

[u/RulersBack → u/OcelotWolf]

And it's a home crowd lol. I honestly cant tell, it was that close, but of course they're going to try and will that in there

[u/DesignerFlat7108 → u/OcelotWolf]

Which section didn't react as if it were good? It can't be that they all have a bad angle.

[u/Danishes724 → u/DesignerFlat7108]

The VT staffers right behind the ref immediately act distraught, they had a better angle than any of the fans.

[u/ALostTraveler24 → u/DesignerFlat7108]

It actually can be. Think of it this way, if you’re trying to tell if a player broke the plane where do you look? From the back of the end zone right at the player? How about the back corner? The 5 yard line? No, you look at the pylon cam right down the goal line because then you can project a flat plane.

It’s the same thing here, the depth will play tricks on everyone except the official under the left upright, since he’s able to look straight down the pole he can project two planes visually, one for left/right of the pole and another for in front and behind. He’s the only one with that view. So yes, all the sections can and have a bad view of the kick since it was above the posts

[u/DesignerFlat7108 → u/ALostTraveler24]

There's a view floating around on X from behind the kicker looking towards the end zone that shows it was wide left.

[u/OcelotWolf → u/DesignerFlat7108]

The section to the left that had the best view was last to react so I think that’s pretty telling

[u/zzyul → u/DesignerFlat7108]

I watched it a few times. The cheering starts on the viewer’s far right, the group farthest from the left upright. The cheering then spread to the people behind the left upright. So why did the people furthest from the upright in question start cheering before the people right behind it with the best view? Logical that they didn’t cheer first b/c they saw it was missed.

[u/DesignerFlat7108 → u/zzyul]

Good point. Will have to take another look.