New clip shows refs robbed Georgia with brutal missed false start call on 4th down

Georgia was not treated fairly.

91st Allstate Sugar Bowl  - Notre Dame v Georgia
91st Allstate Sugar Bowl - Notre Dame v Georgia | Chris Graythen/GettyImages

Georgia football's season unfortunately ended a few games too early on Thursday as they lost 23-10 to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff at the Sugar Bowl.

Let's first mention that Notre Dame was the better team on this day and deserved to win the game. However, it's impossible to not bring up the many calls that went their way as well.

The below clip is one play the refs got completely wrong as it shows a crucial fourth down play late in the fourth quarter with Georgia trailing 23-10. The Irish were lined up to punt the ball away which would have given the Bulldogs a little bit of hope left that they could mount a comeback.

But Notre Dame had a little trickeration up their sleeves as they subbed all 11 special teams players out for 11 players on offense, indicating to Georgia that they were going to go for it. Georgia was left in a panicked frenzy as they scrambled to get ready to defend this play. And because of that, Notre Dame did a hard count which drew Georgia offside and gave the Irish a free first down.

But when you look a little closer, the Notre Dame receiver at the bottom of the screen actually flinched before the Georgia defender jumped offside, meaning the Irish should have been flagged for a false start and pushed back five yards. Had this been called correctly, Notre Dame would have punted the ball and given Georgia one final chance at a comeback.

How much did this impact the game?

Would Georgia have actually completed their comeback and won this game had the correct penalty been called? The odds would not have been in their favor. But crazier things have happened in college football before so who knows what would have happened.

While Georgia fans may want to blame the loss on the officials for calls like this, the fact of the matter is that the refs did not cause Georgia to lose. They may not have helped UGA much in this game, but this loss is still firmly on the Bulldogs.

It would have been nice however to have had another shot to win this game, which should have been granted to Georgia from this play.