The block below the waist call on Wyatt Teller late in the first quarter was 100% the wrong call. There was nothing remotely illegal about the block:
1) It was inside the tackle box, before the ball had left the tackle box (making all blocking below the waist, except chop blocks, legal)
2) It was from the front, so even if the officials mistakenly believed the ball had left the tackle box, it is still legal anywhere on the field
and
3) It wasn't a chop block (going low on a defender already being block by another player), since it was a one-on-one block that he simply cut the defender on.
That call turned first-and-10 at the 43 into second-and-25 at the Hokies' own 16, all on a bad call. Then of course, the next play was the first of VT's many fumbles. There's your big momentum swing in the form of back-to-back bad breaks.
1) It was inside the tackle box, before the ball had left the tackle box (making all blocking below the waist, except chop blocks, legal)
2) It was from the front, so even if the officials mistakenly believed the ball had left the tackle box, it is still legal anywhere on the field
and
3) It wasn't a chop block (going low on a defender already being block by another player), since it was a one-on-one block that he simply cut the defender on.
That call turned first-and-10 at the 43 into second-and-25 at the Hokies' own 16, all on a bad call. Then of course, the next play was the first of VT's many fumbles. There's your big momentum swing in the form of back-to-back bad breaks.
