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Originally Posted by grantsrc
Robert, what happens to the down when forward progress is stopped? It ends, right? So any action after forward progress is stopped has no bearing on the status of the clock. If the player controls the ball airborne while in bounds and then is driven backwards OOB by B, his progress was stopped in bounds and the fact that he is driven backwards OOB is moot.
Picture it this way, a runner is running parallel to the sideline and is stood up by a DB and driven backwards OOB. What's the clock status on this play? Where do you mark the ball dead? At the foremost point of the ball before his progress was stopped, right? So what's the clock status on this play? It's running, right? Because his progress was stopped in bounds prior to being driven OOB and the ball was dead at the point his forward progress was stopped.
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When a runner is first held by an opponent and has no forward progess, an interval begins during which the question of whether he's been "held" for purposes of determining the ball dead is in abeyance. The runner may be able to resume forward progress, or may pass or fumble the ball, or the ball may become dead for some other reason, before it can be determined that the runner has indeed been held.
Once the ball is dead, then the question of awarding the spot comes into play. Forward progress must be allowed for regardless of whether the player was so "held" or the ball became dead for some other reason.
So, for example, a runner may be knocked backwards by an opponent who has no more than momentary contact with him. It is quite conceivable that the runner may regain balance and eventually advance beyond that point, and it is also conceivable that the runner may touch out of bounds or have some part of his body other than hands or feet touch the ground before he can advance beyond that point. Either way, he gains the benefit of that point of progress, but in one case the ball is dead out of bounds and the other in bounds.
During the interval in which the runner's forward progress was stopped by an opponent (whether he holds him or not), time counts and the down has not ended. The reason the ball became dead may be that an opponent held him and stopped his progress, or it may be some other reason, but the runner's progress determines the dead ball spot even if the ball was not at that spot at the time it became dead and even if that was not the reason for the ball's becoming dead.
So yeah, the runner gets the spot of forward progress and the clock gets stopped in the case at hand.
Robert