I don't know that that's honestly a cardinal rule that any good referee in any sport could or should follow. If I'm a ref for a basketball game, and I see a guy coming hard to the hoop, I'm going to step to the spot that will give me the best angle to see if there will be any contact when somebody goes up to block his shot. That's anticipating the play. It's the same in football. If I'm a Side Judge, and I see that the offense is running a Sweep towards my side, I should probably be looking at the hands of the perimeter players as the most likely penalty that I'll see is holding by those guys right in my area. If I'm looking at the ball carrier or still staring at the interior line, I'll likely miss a penalty if one occurs. That also means--which we know is true in real life--that players will often get away with penalties away from the action if it doesn't affect the play, and nobody was paying attention to them. Wherever the ball is on the field, there will almost always be at least 2-3 sets of eyes on the people carrying/catching the ball and those who are trying to tackle/defend that person. This is why missing a facemask is so rare as it usually occurs on the ball carrier. It's also relatively easy to notice Illegal Hands to the Head out of your peripheral vision because that motion just stands out even if you're not looking for it. Illegal chop blocks and/or late hits in the middle of the line when the ball is already outside the Box are much less likely to be noticed or called unless the Referee and/or Umpire are in a good position and disciplined enough to still be looking for it.
I don't like to spend a lot of time on the public boards after a loss, especially one as ugly as the Illinois game, because people tend to overreact and be extremely emotional. That's still the general mood of the public boards, I'd say. Suffice it to say, that I see a lot of the same problems that others are rightfully pointing out, but I'm not nearly as panicked about the offense as they are because I think that the vast majority of issues with the offense are centered in the O-line. and much of that can be attributed to moving Farniok to Guard and starting Benhart and Piper over Wilson and Hixson. If you noticed or remember, Farniok was supposed to move to Left Guard in the spring, but he only got one practice at that position when they shut everything down due to Covid. I suspect that Austin wanted to have Farniok and Jaimes together on one side, and the young guys together on the other, because each side would have had different strengths and weaknesses. The young guys move infinitely better in space, and the older guys would be better at Pass Pro and straight-ahead run-blocking. Because they didn't get that time, they had to scrap it, instead sliding Farniok to RG, which would be a much easier transition from RT. I think the coaches felt that Hixson and Wilson didn't have the ceiling of Piper and Benhart, and they were willing to take some setbacks early to allow them to develop. That's what we've been seeing. There is no such thing as a good offense that doesn't have good offensive line play, and there just isn't a shortcut to that. Jurgens' snapping issues complicates everything else, but it's not hard to see on film why Frost wants him at Center as he has gears and power that nobody else has. It's still an open question as to when they'll start to gel enough that we can see the improvement consistently, but we're moving in the right direction, and we're doing it with a lot of youth. Add in Corcoran and other young O-linemen already getting snaps, and we're building towards a very bright offensive future. We're playing lots of young guys in lots of key places, and we're going to take our lumps from doing that. The future is bright. The present? Let the hyenas and jackals disguised as "fans" yip and growl and fight over the scraps of the carcass. I'm grateful that Moos isn't a fool.
