Football OT Roughing the Kicker

[757FridayNiteZ]

During Football OT, during a successful extra point, a Roughing the Kicker foul was called. The Team elected to have the penalty applied toward the next play instead of making another try at half the distance. That put the ball on the 25 instead of the 10 for the opponent's OT attempt at scoring.

Here's the question, in the above scenario, does the offense start their drive at the 25 yard line with 1st down and goal with only 4 downs to score vs 1st down & 10 yards as the line to gain on the 15?

 

[VAOfficial]

The line to gain in OT is always the goal line. There are only two ways to get a first down in OT. The first is by a roughing foul, i.e. roughing the passer, snapper, holder, or kicker. The second is recovering a scrimmage kick (i.e., a 3 point field goal attempt) that has been touched beyond the neutral zone by R (the defense).

 

[757FridayNiteZ]

Well that's what we thought at last night's OT game. But after the ball was put on the 25 yrd line, they pulled out the markers. I'm trying to remember the sequence of downs but I'm pretty sure the team got an extra down due to the error.

 

[VAOfficial]

That’s unfortunate. If this is the Cox-Oscar Smith game, luckily they did not gain a down from the error. I saw the play-by-play on Twitter but they did not note the chains being set up.

Started on the 25, backed up 5 for a penalty. Replay 1st down on the 30. Pass interference, which I assume resulted in a “first down” because it reached the line to gain, but it would’ve been replay 1st down regardless because of the PI foul. 1st from the 15. Then after that the defense got them to 4th down and stopped them. If the chains were being used in OT like you say, they were lucky to avoid what could’ve been a big problem. The biggest problem would’ve been if the offense “reached the line to gain” at the 5 and got a new series of downs there.

Rule 12-5-1: Resolving Tied Games

5-3-1: The line to gain is always the goal line regardless of whether or not a penalty enforcement places the ball more than 10 yards from the goal line to start a new series.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Wow, that's got to be a rarity. A sequence of events that results in a first and goal from the 30 in OT. I'm sure that's probably not a record, but it's still got to be highly unusual.

 

[White hat]

I've heard of it happening as the result of an unsportsmanlike conduct flag but I haven't run across the dreaded roughing the kicker enforcement. We call them "sasquatch plays," although I've heard some guys call them "unicorn plays."

 

[DinwiddieProud]

What defines roughing the kicker. I've seen the slightest bump be called, and a lot worse not be called. I've seen times if the kicker would have just gone down from the contact, (instead of just trying to get downfield), I think it would have been called. And other times the kicker should have won an Oscar.

 

[White hat]

What defines roughing the kicker. I've seen the slightest bump be called, and a lot worse not be called. I've seen times if the kicker would have just gone down from the contact, (instead of just trying to get downfield), I think it would have been called. And other times the kicker should have won an Oscar.

It's all subjective. A rule of thumb is that hitting the kicking leg is running into the kicker ut hitting the plant leg is roughing. That's an accepted guideline but there are obvious exceptions. It's one of those calls where, once a flag is thrown, the referee has a little bit of time to decide what call to make. I've also had calls where I made one call, then wished I had made the other. Usually in that circumstance I've called roughing and decided later it should have been running into.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

I assume you have to also consider was the rusher blocked into the kicker?

(I know my fan's "terms" for the players probably make you laugh, but I don't know your lingo, and would probably mis-use the terms if I did).

 

[White hat]

If someone is blocked into the kicker, then that's a mistake by the blocker.

A little-known rule and seldom seen is the fact that a flag CAN be thrown for roughing a kicker when the kick is touched by the defense.

If player 1 for the defense blocks or partially blocks a kick but then hits the kicker, he's OK. But if player 1 blocks or partially blocks a kick and then player 2 takes an unnecessary shot at the kicker. he can be flagged. It would have to be a flagrantly cheap shot to get flagged in that spot. A regular block would make sense if the ball might be loose, but touching the ball is not a ticket to a free shot.