On Friday night, Navy was up north to take on UConn in an American Athletic Conference showdown. The Midshipmen, at 6-1, entered expecting to soar past the lowly 2-6 Huskies, whose lone wins have come against FCS Wagner and a UMass team that has only beaten a still-winless Akron.

After Navy scored the opening touchdown, UConn tied it with one of its own, but the ensuing kickoff went out of bounds. That, of course, is a penalty, which should be signified by a mere toss of the flag.

Well, maybe not.

Credit to the official, who continues to signal the play like nothing at all happened. But how did he mistime the throw? Was he simply going through the motions after being forced to work a UConn football game? Was he thinking about the pregame meal? Was he trying to remember if he turned the oven off at home? We’ll never know.

Officials have tough jobs dealing with players’ infractions on the field while enduring profanity-laced diatribes from angry coaches on the sidelines from time to time. Reaching into your pocket and throwing your flag should be the simplest of tasks. Unfortunately, for this official in particular, it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.