QUIZ ANSWERS: 2014 WEEK #11


1. RULING: A 1/10 B18; Ready. Game clock shows 0:19. The foul occurred during a running play so the 10-yard penalty is enforced from the end of A16's run, B's 28. If the penalty was incorrectly enforced from the previous spot, B's 32, it would be A 4/2 B22 and put Team A at a disadvantage not intended by rule. However, penalty enforcement is not reviewable. COMMENT: It has been reported that some conferences use technology to correct errors such as these. Perhaps the conferences that are not as well off financially could use smoke signals from the replay booth. Replay does not correct all errors. This error should be corrected using, "Correcting the number of the down" (12-3-5-d).


2. RULING: A f/k A10. No score on the try. The 15-yard penalty for the Team A celebration foul is enforced from A's 35 to A's 20. The penalty for B95's personal foul is declined by rule since the foul was not flagrant. The penalty for A77's dead ball personal foul (considered an unsportsmanlike act) is enforced half the distance from the succeeding spot, A's 20. [9-2-1-a-1-(j); A.R. 9-2-1-X]. NOTE:


3. RULING: Touchback. B 1/10 B20. A66 added new impetus when he batted B99's fumble from the field of play into Team B's end zone where it becomes dead. A66 also committed an illegal batting foul. The fact that the ball became dead in Team B's end zone under the momentum rule was trumped by the fact that new impetus was imparted by the batting by A66. The momentum rule becomes null and void when the ball enters the field of play unless the fumble goes forward and out of bounds between the goal lines. The basic enforcement spot for A66's foul is B's goal line.


4. RULING: B 1/10 50. Team A commits a free kick out of bounds foul since the ball was not touched by a Team B player. The five-yard penalty is enforced from the spot where the subsequent dead ball belongs to Team B, B's 45. The touching by A88 is legal since the ball had gone 10 yards. There is no foul by B94 since the ball hit the ground before the contact occurred.


5. RULING: A 4/13 A37. False start by A78. A78 is not a lineman (2-27-4-a-2) since his head does not break the plane of the line drawn through the waistline of the snapper. Hence, the "threatened" exception (7-1-5-a-2) does not apply. The dead ball foul would be on B96 if A78 was a lineman. A78 satisfies the definition of a back if his head or body does not break the plane of the line drawn through the waistline of the nearest Team A lineman. If there were no dead ball fouls, Team A might have five players in the backfield at the snap.


6. RULING: A 3/10 B30; Snap. Foul for illegal formation. The 5-yard penalty will be accepted and is enforced from the previous spot. The clock was stopped for the incomplete legal forward pass, not for the illegal formation foul. The play does not indicate that all Team A players were, or were not, set for a second after the ready so it is assumed that they were set for a second. If not, this would be called a "false start for an illegal shift of the second kind" and ZAP 10 would apply. (A.R. 7-3-2-VII)


7. RULING: Safety. A f/k A20. Team B scores two points. The momentum rule does not apply since the ball did not remain behind A's goal line (8-5-1-a Exception). Exception (c) indicates that momentum still applies if A47's fumble goes out of bounds between the goal lines. After A47's fumble, the ball went from the field of play then back into A's end zone. The impetus is A47's fumble.


Rom Gilbert / pigskin@romgilbert.us / October 29, 2014 / (q-1411a)