CBS color analyst Gary Danielson let loose on the officials during the Army-Navy game on Saturday after officials penalized a Navy player for an innocuous football spike after scoring a touchdown.
The moment came after Eli Heidenreich scored on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Navy QB Blake Horvath. The score put Navy up 21-10 with just under seven minutes left in the third quarter. Following the score, Heidenreich spiked the ball near Army linebacker Elo Modozie and was called for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Danielson reacted with disgust.
“Terrible call,” Danielson said. “We’ve got warriors out there, and they make a call like that. Stay out of the game.’
CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore agreed with Danielson that the call was poor.
Penalty aside, the play marked a tipping point in the game. Up until that play, the game had been a defensive struggle, with neither team breaking away from the other. However, Heidenreich’s score opened the floodgates and turned a hard-fought 14-10 game into a 31-13 rout, with Navy leaving the Black Knights in the dust.
“I think they’re like us. We want to be significant,” Navy head coach Brian Newberry said after the game. “I think we both were this year, and I think because of that, maybe there was a little more significance, a little more interest maybe in this game.”
Navy closed the regular season with a 9-3 record, while the Army fell to 11-2.
