91AggieLawyer said:
It probably was a blindside block. The reason it wasn't called probably had a lot to do with the officials' mechanics. During a punt play, the 3 deep officials generally line up in a straight line fairly deep. Ignoring potential fouls like kick catch interference (they don't apply here), once the ball is caught and the returner starts upfield, the two deep flanks (Side Judge and Field Judge) have forward progress on the runner -- in other words, they are responsible for getting the spot -- and so are likely focused on ball carrier and his movement up field. Because the runner took off like a shot, they're already well behind the play and weren't focused on blocking. The Back Judge and Umpire (middle of the field nearer the line of scrimmage) would have had to have gotten this, but were either blocked out by other players or were looking at something else. The two line of scrimmage officials (Line Judge and Head Linesman) were almost certainly reading the runner breaking and setting up to cover the goal line (their responsibility). The Center Judge and Referee would never have called this even had they seen it clearly -- too far away.
It happened pretty quickly so its almost certain that one or more officials saw the result of the block but not the full block and passed on the call.
The only thing I would say differently is if I am the deep wing on the far side, I am not looking in the primary halo where this occurred. I am cleaning up behind the play. Even if I was, there was a lot of traffic between me and the block.
I think it was a clear BSB but like you said, this is a hard one to see on the field in real time especially because there were 5 blocks all happening at the same time and the runner was not in the clear.
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