Michigan Football loses to Big Ten refs, Michigan State helps

Michigan football was beaten on Saturday at Michigan State, but the Spartans certainly didn’t win the game, it was handed to them by the Big Ten officials.

This might sound like sour grapes. I don’t care. Michigan football beat Michigan State on Saturday. At least it would have if the referees were anything close to fair.

Every single call went for the Spartans and there were some that decided the game. One was when the refs inexplicably took an Aidan Hutchinson defensive touchdown off the board when there was no visual evidence to do so.

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But it was par for the course for Big Ten refs, especially when Michigan football is involved.

On the second drive of the game, a perfect block by Andrel Anthony was called for a hold. Instead of the ball at the two, it was moved back and Michigan settled for three.

Later in the game, when Michigan State was near its own goal line, Chris Hinton had his jersey grabbed right in front of the ref and no flag was called. Eventually, the Spartans scored on the drive.

And let’s not forget when Michigan State had a pass hit the ground, that was called a reception on another touchdown drive. The kicker was when Cornelius Johnson was blatantly held going across the middle on the final fourth down of the game.

The ref stared at the Michigan State defender’s arm wrapped around Johnson and nothing. Cool. But earlier, there was marginal contact when DJ Turner was flagged. What’s a flag on one end should be on the other.

If you can’t get it right on replay review, as the Big Ten didn’t in 2016 with the JT Barrett play, what the hell is the point?

Yes, Michigan football made mistakes. Playing J.J. McCarthy late was an error and Jim Harbaugh should be given hell for it. You also can’t kick field goals like that in a shootout.

But it would have still been a win if it wasn’t for the bad calls, especially Hutchinson’s TD. The score would have been tied and Jake Moody would have boomed a game-winner.

Michigan football was robbed of a win. It was JT Barrett all over again and the Big Ten should be ashamed of itself. Michigan is the better team, but it’s tough to play against the zebras too.