Catch? No Catch? Neal Brown Gives His Thoughts on Two Critical Plays vs Pitt

The man has a point.

West Virginia had a dose of bad luck in the Backyard Brawl. Not only did the Mountaineers surrender the lead on a wide-open pass that was dropped and returned for a pick-six, but they were on the wrong side of two replay reviews. 

The first came on Pitt's game-tying drive where QB Kedon Slovis "completed" a pass to TE Gavin Bartholomew. When it happened live, it didn't even look like a catch. The fact that the officials went to replay and confirmed the call on the field was even more baffling, especially when you see the shared tweet below that clearly shows the ball touching the ground. 

pic.twitter.com/tn3hq5n5Cx

— Christopher Hall (@WVHallBilly) September 4, 2022

The other big review that went Pitt's way was a pass that was hauled in by Reese Smith on 4th & 16 near the goal line which would have given WVU an opportunity to tie the game up. The play was ruled a catch on the field but was overturned to an incompletion upon further review. It was probably the right call, but how both plays were not ruled the same is what WVU head coach Neal Brown doesn't understand.

Pitt's Rashad Battle defends on a pass intended for West Virginia's Reese Smith on fourth and 16 with under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter at Acrisure Stadium. pic.twitter.com/saBhDYLH0c

— Charles Palla (@ChazPalla) September 2, 2022

"Greg Burks handles the officials in our conference. And our commissioner was at the game and he was helpful. Greg does a really good job. I don't have any complaints with him. I think the game is extremely hard to officiate. My issues in the game were, the first one was I knew both those guys fair caught the ball. It just took a little longer to get it right but they got it right. Credit to them. As far as the last catch or non-catch goes, there's two plays that went to replay. On their last scoring drive when they were on offense, they threw the ball to the tight end across the middle. They called it a catch on the field and they let it stand. And to me, the ball hit the ground, which I think you can see on the shot. So the ball that Reese [Smith] caught or was ruled a catch on the field as well goes to replay, you can see it hit the ground just like you can see that other ball hit the ground. So my argument is either both of them are catches or neither one of them are catches. That's where we agree to disagree. It wasn't hostile or anything like that but you have those discussions and I think our league office does a good job of responding. I was frustrated at the end of the game because I didn't get a response from the head official when I called that timeout. I called that timeout because I wanted to get a response of what was said on replay and he's the only one that knows. I thought the game overall was officiated pretty well."

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