"I thought I got hit," said Maher. "The ref said it was incidental contact. He did a great job of explaining it to me."
Clearly….Maher's leg was still in the air. Clearly he was contacted. Clearly the referees missed it and the result was Weston Dressler ran back a 78 yard punt for a touchdown,
"I always thought there was roughing the kicker and running into the kicker," said Campbell."There's a 15-yard penalty and a five-yard penalty. If they thought the guy ran into him, but didn't rough him, it was contacting the kicker. I thought he contacted him, but I'd have to watch the film."
So just what is incidental contact. Well Mr Webster defines incidental the following way:
occurring merely by chance or without intention or calculation
So there you have it. Maher was run into merely by chance or without intention or calculation. Boy does that leave the door wide open for interpretation.
The sad reality is that Maher should have had some acting lessons. Had he hit the turf and flopped like a fish out of water the chances are pretty good that flags would have been flying through the air. The punt return touchdown would have been negated and maybe the RedBlacks have their second win of the season. Just another sad commentary on the state of Canadian Football League officiating.
It was good to go out there and put some points on the board and have some fun,” Burris said. “It was good to get it going, and we’ll continue to work in that direction, but it means nothing in the end when you don’t get the victory, and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
Meanwhile what a performance by the Riders Tearrius George. The big lineman got to know Henry Burris very well spending the day in his face and sacking the Ottawa quarterback three times. We all do it together,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it today without Chick, (end Ricky) Foley and the rest of the guys doing what they do on the outside and freeing me up for a couple sacks.” Tearrius George
“When he gets going, you’ve got to put the whole offensive line on him — and I think you’re still going to have trouble stopping him,” Brackenridge said after the Roughriders’ 35-32 overtime victory over the Ottawa Redblacks at Mosaic Stadium.“When he turns it up, there’s no stopping him. He’s an animal in there. ”
So now the Riders turn their attention to the final six games of the regular schedule.
Five of the six meetings will be against the Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Stampeders.
The Stampeders came back down to earth with a humbling loss to the Montreal Alouettes. The Stampeders have been hit with the injury bug but coach Hufnagel says that's no excuse.
Edmonton finally achieved a milestone of sorts. They lost to Hamilton 25 - 23 marking their first loss to someone other than Calgary. Of the Eskimos four losses three had been to the Stampeders. Adarius Bowman who had a game to forget against Hamilton was against if it felt different losing to someone other than Calgary.
I say yeah to that,” said Eskimos slotback Adarius Bowman, who became the first player to reach 1,000 receiving yards on the season Saturday. “It doesn't feel good, by no means. It's kind of different than losing to Calgary.”