Ohio State loses a touchdown and its best cornerback on this awful targeting call vs. Maryland

Denzel Ward deserved a lot better.

Ohio State’s Denzel Ward put a brutal but legal hit on Maryland receiver Taivon Jacobs Saturday. The hit knocked the ball loose, and Ward picked it up with nothing but grass ahead of him. It should’ve been a fumble recovery touchdown for the Buckeyes.

It was not. Officials ruled that athe play was an incomplete pass, with Jacobs not controlling the ball before losing it, and b) targeting on Ward. So instead of a defensive touchdown, Ward got a 15-yard personal foul and an ejection.

The NCAA’s football rulebook tells officials to call targeting if a play is even questionable, but I’m not sure what the crew working this game saw.

These two things are targeting, basically:

• Making “forcible contact against an opponent with the helmet crown,” or the top of the tackler’s head.
• Making “forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent.”

Ward definitely doesn’t hit Jacobs with the helmet crown.

Jacobs is arguably a defenseless receiver here, if you think he hasn’t yet had time to control the pass and become a ball-carrier. But he’s got the ball and is starting to run, and at any rate, Ward doesn’t hit him in the head or neck. He goes straight for the chest, and he hits Jacobs in what looks like an entirely clean way.

This was a bad call. Ward made a great defensive play and probably should’ve gotten six points out of it. Instead, Ohio State’s down its best cornerback.