2012 Season Week 14 Clips

Inadvertent Signals   According to 4-1-2-b, a live ball becomes dead if an official sounds his whistle inadvertently or otherwise signals the ball
dead during a down.   In this play, a scrimmage kick is illegally batted (no flag) by Team A.  The spot of the illegal batting is an illegal touching spot.  The covering official chose to deploy his bean bag, and for some reason, began giving Signal 3 (timeout).   However, he and his crewmates allowed play to continue despite the signal.  We have no way of knowing for sure whether Team A players saw the signal and stopped playing despite the apparent lack of a whistle to accompany the signal.  It is somewhat telling to observe the L who had already retrieved the new ball that would be put in play next.  Perhaps he saw the B's signal and assumed play was over?  We have subsequently learned that in the NFL, an official's signal, even if inadvertent, does not cause the ball to become dead.  However, for now at least, in the NCAA game, signals like this DO cause the ball to be come dead and must be dealt with.   It is also puzzling why the video review booth did not step in before the PAT and review the play.  Most officials learn in the very early stages of their officiating career that while they are very undesirable, inadvertent whistles will occur.  The best thing you can do is admit the error and move on.   An inadvertent signal is the same as an inadvertent whistle.  We must admit the error, deal with the play, and move on. As a learning experience, viewers are encouraged to discuss this play with other officials and determine what could/should have been done, assuming play was stopped after the B's signal and there was an admission of the inadvertent signal.  On next week's page, we will provide our view of how it could/should have been handled.

 In another game on the same day, the booth did become involved when an official gave the TD signal while the ball was loose.  See the video here. 

Dead Ball Officiating   Admittedly, even with 7 officials on the field,  we are going to miss some action that occurs off the ball and during dead ball moments.  But we can reduce the frequency of such misses by not being ball watchers and paying close attention to others who might not be directly involved with play around the ball.  In this clip, it appears we do have an official in very good position to observe action on the QB at the end of the play.  However, the QB  (obviously out of the play) is viciously hit and no flag is dropped.  Perhaps the covering official judged the QB was not out of the play.  It seems more likely he was looking past the QB at the action around the ball.  Many conferences have instructed their officials to pay particular attention to QB's following turnovers as Team B players will often take advantage of that situation to deliver crushing hits on the QB.  

Legal, but Dangerous Block Below the Waist   As the blocking below the waist rule has been tweaked in an attempt to make it more restrictive, we have discovered blocks that are actually now legal, but which would have been illegal in the past.  Some of these are very dangerous.  This video is a perfect example.   The RB lined up to the left of the QB initially, goes in motion prior to the snap.  In the past, he would have been a restricted blocker as he was in motion at the snap.  However, now, since he was never outside the tackle box during that motion, he is unrestricted.  His block at the A-33 is legal, even though it is directed back towards the original position of the ball at the snap.  If a wide receiver on the right side had come in as this blocker did and thrown the same block, he would have fouled. 

False Starts    This week saw multiple examples of good officiating to properly rule on movement by receivers as false starts, and not illegal motion (or ignored entirely as some might do).  Video 1   The WR at the top of the screen flinches before the snap and is properly flagged for a false start.    Video 2   The TE jerks just prior to the snap, a classic false start. Video 3  In the last video, a player who may normally not be an interior lineman became one as he was covered up by a wide receiver split out to the right side.  As a result, when he came out if his stance to look around, he committed a false start.  Had he not been covered up, this would not have been a false start.   

"Zap 10"  When there is less than a minute in a half and the game clock is running, certain fouls qualify for a 10 second subtraction from the game clock in addition to any penalty yardage.  (3-4-4)  The offending team can avoid the runoff by burning a timeout.  The offended team can decline the "Zap 10" portion of the penalty.  Video 1  The first video is an example of an illegal shift that converts to a false start.   In this situation, both teams were willing to get to the locker room as quickly as possible for halftime and the Zap 10 was invoked.  Some officials may disagree on whether or not this was the type of shift that should convert to a false start.  7-1-2-b says it is a false start when the offensive team never come to a one-second stop prior to the snap after the ball is ready for play.  Viewers can decide for themselves if that one second stop requirement was met or not.  Video 2    This example includes an intentional grounding to stop the clock foul which is one of those qualifying for the Zap 10.  While the crew properly subtracted the 10 seconds, they did not start the game clock on the ready for play as they should have (3-4-4-c). 

Rom Gilbert / rom.gilbert@sfcollege.edu/ December 5, 2012 (index.html)