Officials miss blatant facemask on Alabama, CBS broadcasters blast no-call

After Alabama scored the opening touchdown against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, Brian Battie went to return the kickoff. On the play, it appeared as if a Crimson Tide defender grabbed him by the helmet and twisted — thus, constituting a facemask penalty.

The officials, however, threw a flag for a block in the back penalty against Auburn and didn’t call the facemask. Instead of adding 15 yards to the run, the Tigers got put on their own 4-yard line.

The CBS broadcasting crew of Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson wasn’t too happy about the decision.

"You'd have to not understand football not to see this." – Gary Danielson after a facemask was not called on this play. pic.twitter.com/FcpBkPIVoa

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) November 25, 2023

“We’ve seen facemasks where the hand rubs across the facemasks, but you’d have to not understand football to not see this,” Danielson said.

Rules analyst Gene Steratore then weighed in on why the crew might have missed the call on the Alabama defender and pointed out what the officials were looking for on the play. Danielson then asked if they could look up at the scoreboard at Jordan-Hare Stadium — which showed the replay — but Steratore said that can’t impact the call.

“What you’re hoping is one official is looking at the action on the runner,” Steratore said. “The referee, in this case, behind the play, he’s looking at the block. … It’s an uncomfortable feeling, Gary, but you can’t look up and officiate from the scoreboard.”

It’s safe to say Nessler didn’t like the no-call.

“That’s the worst non-call I’ve seen this year,” he said.

It’s safe to say Auburn shook it off quick, though. The Tigers marched down the field on their next drive and scored on a four-yard rush from Damari Alston to tie the game at 7-7.

Alabama and Auburn have played some notable games during their storied rivalry. But there’s a saying about “weird things” that can happen at Jordan-Hare for the opposing team.

To Nick Saban, it’s not always that simple.

“People talk about this stuff all the time, and I don’t see it,” Saban said on Hey Coach and The Nick Saban Show. “Because the games that we haven’t been successful in, we made the errors and didn’t play well enough and they played really, really well. I mean, even in the Kick Six game that everybody talks about, I think we had the ball inside the 25-yard line five times and never scored a point when we were ahead by seven points in the third and fourth quarter — whether it’s missed field goal, blocked field goal, penalty in the end zone after getting the ball on the 7-yard line, whatever it is.

“That was ultimately what was the deciding factor in the game. But all those other things that happen before that that were missed executions, basically, and mental errors led to that circumstance having a chance to have significance.”