Fox’s Chris Petersen is sick over the referee’s controversial Minnesota-Michigan onside kick call

Michigan football did almost everything it could to blow a three-touchdown lead, but got some help from the referee late in the fourth quarter to hold off Minnesota 27-24 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.

A Minnesota player was ruled offside due to the onsides kick, which the Golden Gophers made amends at the Wolverines’ 40-yard line with XX to play, trailing 27-24.

“I’m feeling really sick right now,” Fox analyst Chris Petersen, the former longtime head coach of Boise State and Washington, said after the game. “I just hate to see the officials make things up. Like I don’t know why they would fly that flag. For me these are always close decisions, the ball has been kicked. It’s not a monster… whatever.” We’ll do it, let the children play.

“We would always say: With one move you never lose the game, with one move you can win the game, but when it comes down to an official’s decision? Do you know how hard it is to do an onsides kick? …And then they got it, they made it perfect, and then it gets taken away? I don’t like it at all, it’s so frustrating, that’s why I’m not training right now.”

Mike Pereira, Fox’s rules analyst, disputed the call in real time on the broadcast. It was “terribly close,” he said.

“I don’t think he’s offside. … I don’t think he breaks the plane,” Pereira said. The piece cannot be reviewed.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Analysts sick about onside kick call in Michigan win over Minnesota