You make the call '16 No. 6

[White hat]

This might have been discussed on here before. You're free to look back and see, or just give it a guess based on what you know.

Because kicking plays are where stuff can get really weird, these sorts of quiz-plays tend to have a disproportionate number of kick plays.

Team A's ball 4th and 10 from its own 35. A9 is punting from his own 20 yard line.

Play 1. The snap is low and A9 does not handle it cleanly. He runs to the ball, picks it up and takes off running forward and toward the sideline. B55 gives chase. At the 30 yard line near the sideline, A9 punts the ball. B55 is about three yards away, takes two steps and hits A9 knocking him to the ground. Is this a foul?

Play 2, The snap is low and A9 does not handle it cleanly. He picks it up but sees two rushers coming near. B55 is a step closer to A9 than B44. A9 punts the ball and B55 gets a hand on it, deflecting its flight but not blocking it to the ground. B44 then delivers a hard block to A9, knocking him to the ground. Is this a foul?

Play 3. The snap is low and A9 does not handle it cleanly. He picks it up and starts running to the left. Knowing he cannot make a first down he punts the ball but shanks it badly. The ball, untouched by B, flies back across the field where A10 catches it on the fly at the A 33 yard line. A10 then runs to the 50. Who's ball is it and where?

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Yes
No
B ball @ A 33

 

[onlylabs]

No
Yes
A ball on the 50.

 

[White hat]

I'll give the answer now because I'm going to be away from my computer for about a week. Don't want to let this sit that long.

The first two plays are judgment calls, so hopefully I can make a point and, if I wrote it well enough that you were picturing it how I meant it, the answers will make sense.

In each case, the punt by A9 is legal.

There can be roughing the kicker on plays like this, and in the first two, my intention was to indicate a foul occured. If a defender makes contact with a kicker because there is reason to assume a kick might not be made, then he gets a lot of leeway. I'm not going to penalize a kid who is trying to make a play. However, if he takes two steps and delivers a big hit just because the punter ran before kicking the ball, that certainly can be flagged.

Basically, if contact with a kicker can be avoided, it must be avoided. Two steps is usually plenty of time to alter course slightly and run past him rather than through him.

The second play illustrates the belief that a touched kick takes away all rules for hitting the kicker. A player who gets a hand on the ball is clearly so close to making a play that the rules allow contact with a kicker. But rules do not allow contact with a kicker by teammates of the defender, just because the kick was touched. Unnecessary and avoidable contact by players who did not touch the ball in an effort to block it can still be flagged. (Obviously, if the kick is blocked so that the ball is still right there and a defender blocks the kicker to prevent him from getting the ball, that's allowed.)

Finally, a kick that never crosses the neutral zone is anyone's. If caught in flight by either team, they can advance. If caught by the kicking team, the down is still 4 and they still have to make the line to gain or it's a turnover on downs.

Why don't you see this tactic? Because kicking a football is an inexact science and there are lots of better options for advancing the ball than planning a botched punt. I would say the likelihood of disaster would be very high for the kicking team.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Well, 2 out of 3 for me. That's 66% better than I usually do. Have a safe trip.