Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler criticize officials for brutal roughing the passer call on Ohio State against Nico Iamaleava
It appeared that Ohio State had punished a Nico Iamaleava mistake, with Davison Igbinosun intercepting the jumping pass the Tennessee quarterback threw in the second quarter, in Buckeye territory. But a flag wiped out the play.
Iamaleava was driven into the turf after his jump by Ohio State pass rusher Kenyatta Jackson Jr., who wa called for roughing the passer. It’s a call that the ESPN booth of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and rules analyst Bill LeMonnier didn’t agree with.
“I wanna ask Bill here, but I think it was the fact that he grabbed Nico as he threw him and then drove him into the ground. Ohio State brings pressure on the outside. It gets picked up, but watch 97 after the throw, drive him into the ground. That’s the only think I can see, Bill,” Herbstreit said.
LeMonnier concurred, and Herbstreit continued, pointing out the call is commonplace in the NFL.
“By the way, Bill, you see that called in the NFL all the time because of what happened to Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins, they kind of made that rule to prevent that, the back of the head hitting the turf. You don’t see it called in college, ever. The driving into the ground as often,” Herbstreit said.
And then Chris Fowler added his take on the play.
“It’s a great play by Igbinosun that’s going to be nullified. Iamaleava was in the air when Jackson hit him and I don’t see that. Neither does Ryan Day,” Fowler said.
Tennessee would ultimately finish the drive with a field goal and trail, 21-3, with minutes to go until halftime. The Volunteers would follow it up with another score, a touchdown, to trail 21-10 at the half.
Iamaleava survived a big collision earlier, but his helmet didn’t
Josh Heupel knew the physicality was coming on Saturday against Ohio State. The Tennessee head coach probably did not bet on his quarterback having a cracked helmet after one drive.
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But as Iamaleavea left for the sideline early in the first quarter, he sported a huge crack on a white portion of his helmet.
Ohio State was attempting to get Iamaleava to the ground on a third down when linebacker Cody Simon stepped up. A big collision between the two did see helmet-to-helmet contact but not to the degree of targeting.
Before taking the field for Tennessee’s second drive, a completely new helmet was required. A scramble for the team’s equipment staff, even if the Ohio State offense gave them a little time to provide a replacement.
“It was a huge hit,” ESPN’s Marty Smith said. “In fact, it put a six-inch crack on top of Nico Iamaleava’s helmet. He now has a new helmet. The equipment staff of Tennessee worked vigorously during that last time to try to prepare for the new helmet. They just told me, the equipment staff did, it was very similar to what happened to Patrick Mahomes‘ helmet in Kansas City a few weeks back.”