2010 Post-Season Week 6 Clips  

                                                            Intentional Grounding     You make the call.  Was the QB intentionally throwing the ball to an area where no eligible receiver had a reasonable opportunity to catch it?  Or was the direction of the pass significantly altered as he was hit by the defender?  If the QB did not even know he was about to be hit, it would be hard to say he was throwing the ball to save yardage, which is required if you are ruling intentional grounding (7-3-2-f). 

                                                           Legal Big Hits      Many have decried the emphasis on flagging big hits. They do not seem to recognize that big hits are flagged are flagged because the covering officials judge the hit to be high or made using the hitter's helmet.  This play is an example of a big hit that IS legal and shows the hitters do not have to go high to execute crushing hits.   

                                                           Carried Out of Bounds   When an airborne pass receiver grasps a pass and then comes to ground, if he comes to ground out of bounds, it is an incomplete pass.  Even if the official thinks the receiver would have come down in bounds had he not been hit by a defender, it is still an incomplete pass.  There is an exception (2-2-7-a-3) when the receiver is so held that the dead ball provisions of 4-1-3-p apply.  That provision will allow the pass to be ruled complete if the official judges the receiver was held and carried such that it prevented him from immediately returning to ground.  (AR 7-3-6-IV) In order for the pass in this play to have been ruled complete, the receiver would have had to have been held up and then carried out of bounds. That did not occur.

                                                           Chop Blocks    Play 1  This is a good example of the most commonly seen chop block and it was correctly officiated by this umpire. (NOTE: Re the penalty announcement, is there any such thing as a "legal chop block" ?)   Play 2  A less-commonly seen chop block (out in the open field) but equally illegal and also correctly officiated. 

                                                           Interception at the Goal Line   The momentum exception applies when Team B intercepts a forward pass between his 5-yard line and the goal line and his original momentum carries him into the end zone where the ball is declared dead in his team's possession.  (8-5-1-a Exception 1) If the intercepting player is judged to be down before getting  into the end zone, the ball is dead at the spot where it was when he was judged down.  In this play, had the ball broken the goal line plane before the player's knee touched ground, it would have been a touchback.  (8-6-1-a)

                                                           "Unabated" ?     The defense is offside when it is in or beyond the neutral zone at the snap.  This is a live-ball foul, meaning play continues and the penalty is dealt with when the play ends.  AR 7-1-5-III  provides a situation wherein this foul is treated as a dead ball foul and the play not permitted to begin.  This applies when the defender is behind an offensive lineman and is continuing his charge towards the quarterback or kicker.   This is sometimes referred to as "unabated" which is a term borrowed from the NFL.  The defense simply being in or just beyond the neutral zone before the snap is NOT a dead ball foul.  In contrast, the offense in the neutral zone is a dead-ball foul, encroachment. (7-1-3-a-3)  

                                                           Defensive Pass Interference ?    Defensive pass interference is contact beyond the neutral zone by a Team B player who obviously intends to impede an eligible opponent to prevent him from catching a catchable legal forward pass.  (7-3-8-c)  If opponents collide while moving toward the pass, a foul is indicated only if the intent to impede an opponent is obvious. (7-3-9-g)  Tackling or grasping a receiver before the pass is touched is evidence of disregarding the ball and is illegal.  (7-3-9-j)  Viewers can determine for themselves if a foul was committed in this play.  The potential offendee is the S's key.  He runs  down and crosses the field going away from the S. The contact occurred on the other side of the opposite hash from the S, ~35 yards & at an angle from the S. The B was in the best position to make a call, but he was probably watching his key, who was running a corner route toward the S.

                                                           When should a scrimmage kick be ruled dead?     4-1-3-f declares the ball is dead when  a scrimmage kick comes to rest and no player attempts to secure it.  In practice this generally results in a ball laying motionless for 2 - 3 seconds before a covering official blows his whistle.   Normally, the ball will be surrounded by Team A players with no Team B player nearby nor any Team B player making a move towards the ball.  In this clip, the ball is surrounded by Team B players who have every right to make a play on the ball.     (NOTE:  In this specific play, ball would have been ruled dead as soon as it was picked up by B15 thanks to the "getaway signal" given by B7 earlier in the play)