Huge UCF TD included a (totally legal) massive hit on LSU’s Burrow

Burrow looked injured but returned for LSU’s next drive.

The Fiesta Bowl had a busy first few minutes. LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire returned the opening kickoff 77 yards to set up a great scoring opportunity, but UCF held the Tigers to a field goal and then mounted a touchdown drive of its own. When LSU got the ball back down 7-3, it drove to the UCF 15. Then, disaster struck for LSU, as Joe Burrow threw an interception to Brandon Moore, who ran it back 93 yards for a touchdown:

That’s a potential 14-point swing on one play. It flipped what would’ve likely been a 7-6 game for LSU, at worst, and turned it into an early 11-point deficit.

LSU coach Ed Orgeron wanted officials to call targeting on UCF for a blind-side block the Knights’ Joey Connors put on QB Burrow.

Here’s that block:

After a video review, officials did not call targeting.

LSU fans are going to see this one way, and UCF fans are going to see it another way. But I don’t think this hit was a targeting foul.

The saving grace for Connors was that is that it looks like he first hit Burrow with his shoulder, not his head.

Let’s go to the rulebook, which defines targeting as one of two things: a forcible hit with the crown of the helmet (which this certainly isn’t) or any forcible hit to the head/neck area of a defenseless opponent. Bolding is mine:

No player shall target and make forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent (See Note 2 below) with the helmet, forearm, hand, fist, elbow or shoulder. This foul requires that there be at least one indicator of targeting (See Note 1 below). When in question, it is a foul (Rules 2-27-14 and 9-6). (A.R. 9-1-4-I-VI)

There’s no denying Connors makes forcible contact near Burrow’s head/neck area. There’s also no denying Burrow is a defenseless player. The rulebook specifically says a QB after a change of possession qualifies as defenseless. The reason it’s not targeting, despite all of that, is that Connors doesn’t commit any of these required targeting “indicators”:

Note 1: “Targeting” means that a player takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball. Some indicators of targeting include but are not limited to:

-Launch—a player leaving his feet to attack an opponent by an upward and forward thrust of the body to make forcible contact in the head or neck area

-A crouch followed by an upward and forward thrust to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area, even though one or both feet are still on the ground

-Leading with helmet, shoulder, forearm, fist, hand or elbow to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area

-Lowering the head before attacking by initiating forcible contact with the crown of the helmet

It looks to me like Connors does launch/thrust himself a little bit upward to hit Burrow. He also winds up making forcible contact with Burrow’s head/neck area, for sure.

But none of those indicators quite fit when the hit begins as a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. You can say Connors launched, but it’s a much tougher sell to say he launched “to make forcible contact in the head or neck area,” for instance. He launched to make shoulder contact.

LSU scored a touchdown on its next drive after a soft-looking unsportsmanlike-conduct call following a takedown of Burrow. Then again, that drive also included refs picking up a flag for a late hit after Burrow got hit when he was out of bounds. Later, and LSU cornerback got ejected for punching a UCF player in the facemask, after LSU was already playing without its top three corners. And then UCF’s Kyle Gibson took a real targeting penalty for a hit on Burrow, and officials kicked him out of the game.

So things have been all over the place.