Good question. The loss of the right to replay the down (loss of down) is still enforced when it is 4th down and the ball will go over to the other team. The reason is that the penalty itself did not award the ball to team B, but that team A ran out of downs to reach the line to gain.
What the rule about no penalty causing the team to lose the ball is saying is that no penalty, by itself, causes a team to lose the ball. For example, team A commits offensive pass interference on 4th down. The penalty requires that team A be penalized 15 yards from the basic spot and it also requires that the down counts. Unfortunately for team A, they have used their four downs and they did not reach the line to gain so team B is awarded the ball.
Does that make sense?
__________________
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
|