How Does This 'Punch' Rate, Compared to Blount's?

More TNB

This is stupid and petty, I’m not a wolverines fan in the slightest and I can tell that this was a complete accident, he doesn’t even actually hit the guys face, just the facemask. Regroup and actually watch the video more than twice before you write an article claiming something as dumb as this. 

This punch was about as threatening as Matt Stafford’s headbutt to Brandon Spikes last year.  Video here on youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1×6mWuYwruE

Yeah, when I see that video I think of Blount…..seriously Notre Dame when did you guys get so weak?  Zorich, Bettis, and Young wouldn’t have even felt that…..

This was just one of many blown calls in the game. No excuses though, the irish should have destroyed Michigan as they are a below average team with a freshman below average QB. Tate’s passes were almost laughable as he threw behind every receiver. Don’t get too excited michigan fans "YOU STILL SUCK"

McGuff50!

PLEASE!!!!! Come on pal. OPEN YOUR EYES!

If you think that was an accident, you need to either have your eyes checked or sanity examined!

CLEARLY this guy took liberty to take a cheap shot against his opponent! And, while I absoutely despise Notre Dame, he should have been removed from the game!

Thank you Chris Littman for that revealing look. While I really like Rich Rodriguez and believe that he and Michigan will dominate the Big 10 for years to come, behavior like that can never be tolerated.

Oh, and McGuff50, see an optometrist soon…you really need it!

Your kidding right?.  The kid gets blocked to the ground and held there until he can push his way back up and gives the guy a love tap (to a helmet…).  Are you going to tell me that in a physical game something like this is going to get domers upset?  So what?  At least Michigan isn’t known for cheating like ND is ;)  Thanks for making the series 21-15-1 ND.

and a "below average team with a freshman below average QB. Tate’s passes were almost laughable as he threw behind every receiver" team was able to put a win on their board…  It could have gone either way.

Your kidding right?.  The kid gets blocked to the ground and held there until he can push his way back up and gives the guy a love tap (to a helmet…). 

Finally someone sees the Irish lineman driving Mouton in the back before Mouton "hits" him.

I don’t condone the act either; in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he misses a quarter or half against EMU.

But give me a break. This is a joke compared to some of the things that go on in a game.

Oh Please -

Guys and gals, this is football, a very violent game with lots of chattering going on on the field.  Kids, push, elbow, scratch and something swing at you on the football field, you go to a practice, the same thing is happening on the practice field. 

For a ND fan to submit this looking for some type of restitution since there team loss is just sad. 

Would they had sent this in if ND had won?

Obviously written by someone that has never been on a football field in his life.Put about 30 cameras on the next fumble recovery and see what you come up with. There is more crap that goes on in the scrum that is never seen, or discussed.These guys play a game where you have "controlled" violence for about 12 seconds and then "everybody play nice" until the next snap. Fans cheer the more violent it gets on the field, and yet when someone gets a little chippy in the game the "high moral ground" screamers come out and start shouting for someone’s head.Look, could that have been flagged for unsportmanlike conduct? Depends on what side of the bed the ref got up on that morning. Sometimes they give a talking to the players to settle down, and sometimes they mark yardage off the play.The whole point of this article is to stir the pot and see what comes of it. Hey, Chris, study the game film of every game this Saturday and see how many of those you come up with. I’m betting it will be higher than your and my IQ’s put together.

@jdanovich My challenge to you: Back up your claims. Go find me 10 videos of guys with direct jabs to the chin this weekend that go unflagged. I’m talking direct shots, not shoves. I’ll be waiting. No wait, I won’t be, because there isn’t a chance you’ll be able to do it.

Yeah, it was on purpose……but I like it! The Lloyd Carr Michigan teams had grown soft over the years. The last time we had a "tough" team was in 1997 when they held opponents to an astonishing 9.5ppg.

I also like the fact that RR isn’t gonna discipline the kid either. Carr woulda probably kicked him off the team! Now granted, I don’t want RR to turn the team into a bunch of goons but I do like the tough new attitude of Michigan Football.

its a good shot. well aimed up under the face mask. right on the point of the chin.  the guy who got punched stands a good chance of suffering from TMJ (transmandibular jaw) for the rest of his life, especially if he had his mouth open.  for those who dont know that means severe debilitating headaches, ceaseless ringing in the ears, difficulty chewing/swallowing food.
  thats why it should be punished with criminal charges.

Blount’s punch was much worse and he got severely penalized—-and this one should have been penalized too.

I was watching this game with a few football friends of mine and we all were commenting/wondering about the Big Ten crew’s officiating and how several big plays—including a "sideline touchdown" (for 7 points) happened to be called back due to holding penalties or press box reviews—and all were against the visiting team, Notre Dame.

The later game between USC-OSU game had no such official "yellow flag attack" and the two teams decided the winner.

One or more of those "calls" going the other way—and Michigan loses the game—-and if all of them don’t take place, Michigan loses by two or more scores.

My vote is for neutral officials—hopefully good and fair ones—for all intersectional games between teams that aren’t in the same conference or an independent like Notre Dame.

Then the game gets decided on the field and players like the one in the film won’t be bold enough to punch a guy in the mouth because he thinks his own league’s officials "have his back".

BTW—Michigan has a standing rule that only Big Ten officials can be used in Ann Arbor and last Saturday’s Head official actually lives in Ann Arbor from an article I read yesterday.

He hit him. He should get the same result, suspend for the season…video clearly shows punch…

sounds like alot of sour grapes to me, for every bad call u bitter pills are whinin about can show either a hold on grahm or a late hit out of bounds on ND.its football people, im not condoning his actions but this was nothing like oregon and as far as the tate hater take ur shots now while ya can cuz the kid looks better than mr clauson did his frosh year and has pretty good upside dont ya think!

ND player started with a LATE block/hit leading with his helmet to MIch player who had already slipped/knocked down on the ground.

Stop whining you Irish pansies!

You are so tough and so good, Come play play in the SEC!!
Then we can talk about your toughness! Until then..
SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHAAAAAADDDDDDUUUUUUPPPPPPpppppp!

Chris, you’re the "reporter", you do the research. What I see here is that you got an email from someone else and threw it out there to see what would happen.If the best reporting that you can do is that, or to "challenge" me to back up my claims that it happens a lot more than you seem to realize, then that, my friend, is very sorry state of affairs.Or, I could be very mistaken, and all you do is blog. In which case, I retract everything that I’ve written, because blogging doesn’t take any journalistic integrity, or objective research. Mea culpa.Blah. Much ado about nothing. I apologize for this petty war of words. My point is that on any given play you can find a hand going somewhere it shouldn’t in football. Then again, we could be talking about hockey….

Thanks for stopping by jdanovich. The last thing I’m going to do is waste a Saturday of perfectly good football backing up your imaginary claims. Enjoy the college football season.

IMHO—We really need to let the players and coaches decide these games by having "neutral" officials from another conference along with the current re-play system which works so well to take any kind of "what did they call that for" type speculation out of these games. 

A few pictures are worth a few thousand words.

I Googled "Michigan Officiating" and here’s one of the sites I came across

You decide…I apologize for some of the comments that are made by the poster.

again just another homer,  collegefootball#1 since u officiate so well how about goin both ways.there were plenty of non holding calls on graham and i saw at least 2 calls out of bounds that could of been flagged against ND thata were not called! again thats football, calls are made and calls are missed but it generally goes both ways.stop whinin and learn to play better defense instead of blaming the refs (ND had plenty of chances to win the ballgame but didnt)

That Library Dude, The SEC???? You mean the place that is nothing but junior college ghetto thugs who can’t spell their names, no thanks BRO!!!!

Jdanovich,

(ahem) YOU, my friend, made the (ridiculous) claim, NOT the author — Chris Littman. Therefore, the burden of proof resides with  YOU — that’s right YOU — Mr. Danovich.

PERIOD! End of story!

Please save the insults for another venue. Until you support your (asinine) claim with FACTS and PROOF, you’re the only one here who appears to lack objective research!

Let’s see the proof! Don’t worry, I’ll check back later — we have plenty of time for you to show us your research — OR more of YOUR ‘sorry state of affairs.’ (wink)

Mr. Littman asked the question, how does this punch compare to Blounts (I apologize for not using an apostrophe for possession, but I cannot use it in this text box)?

Blount punched Byron Haut in the face; Haut had no helmet on.

Linebacker Jonas Mouton (6 ft 1in, 225 lbs) gave center Eric Olsen (6ft 5in, 305 lbs) a quick uppercut to the chin as he was getting up after the play ended.

If Jonas Mouton had danced and taunted Olsen, punched one of his own teammates in the face, get removed from the field by police and security, had tried to attack some Irish fans, then I would say that the punches were comparable.

IMHO, a personal foul and possibly and ejection should have been called on Mouton. 

tsnmember,

You mentioned that there were calls on Graham being held and two out of bounds plays of some kind that could have been called—whatever that means.

Please show all of us the photo’s to sunstantiate your position—otherwise it’s just an opinion with no proof behind it.

I found photographic evidence that showed bad officiating (and confirmed what my and my friends’ live-game impressions of their’s "something’s wrong here" )—

Note the "delay of game" penalty with the ball already snapped and with :01 still on the play clock—and the two photo’s of the WR being held by one arm  and one of him being tackled with the ball in the air.

My point is a very simple one—-use neutral refs for these intersectional games—-period-end of quote.

I am not whining or a homer—I am a college football fan observer who has seen a lot of games—actually too many—where a home team’s conference officials decide the outcome and not the players/coaches.

It used to go on heavily before replays—that is exactly why replays were put in place due to the protests of coaches who were victimized by refs in close games—

Instant-replay has made it harder—but it still goes on—and the best answer is to remove the conference refs from the equation all together.

You are right on one point—The visiting team could have still won even with the previous calls—except the WR was held by his right arm on the second down pass play with about 2:30 left on the game clock as one of the photo shows clearly.

I go by what my eyes show me and the whole series of events by the officials causes me to wonder what the deal was for the "big game".

Here’s an idea that I don’t think you’ll support—

Maybe next year the Notre Dame squad should have O’Malley, O’Sullivan, Finnegan, Reilly and Houlihan officiate the game—and we’ll see what happens when Michigan tries to move the ball past mid-field or throw a deep pass.

No blood—no foul…

One last time—let’s cut the "homer-ism’ (your term) out from the officiating of intersectional games and we can all enjoy them more and let the best team win.

Seems to me that people are out to smear Michigan.  To compare a little jab to the face mask to Blount blasting someone in the face after the game with no helmet on is ridiculous.   I think people that don’t like Michigan are scared of how good Michigan is going to be.  Are you jealous of the 270 million dollar renovation to the big house?  Are you jealous of the top ten recruiting classes, or is it the nicest facilities in the nation?  Maybee it’s because Michigan is ranked in the top five for public universities in the US NEWS annual report.  Is the fact that Michigan is going to win 10 games in only Rich Rodriguez’s second season make you bitter?  Get a life losers. Ya thats right, and you know who you are.

GO WOLVERINES

Check out the real story of the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt4wj7bS1Os

To The Big Ten’s credit—-and due to the wide-spread Internet and TV coverage of the "sneak punch" by Mouton—Mr Mouton has been suspended  by the Big Ten from playing this Saturday.

That is doing the right thing-otherwise we are going to have some "hockey-game" type brawls at some point-zero tolerance is the only way to go

I found this nice MGOBLUE blog after the game that talks about ‘sportsmanship’ displayed by two of the games players after the game was over
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/clausen-congratulating-tate-after-game

That’s the "real story of the game"…