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Originally Posted by mbyron
Why is it silly? Nothing in the text of the rule supports your reading: if the rule makers had intended your reading, they could have added "with no prior change of possession" or words signaling an important temporal distinction.
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You think it's easy to write this stuff? Why wouldn't you look at "prior" the same way as "has been", and figure it to refer to the entire down? Hey, there was a change of possession "prior" to the penalty enforcement, so....
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I've already explained a possible rationale for this reading: RTP occurs after a legal pass. If the pass is completed, it maximizes the penalty (and therefore the disincentive to RTP) to make the end of the run the enforcement spot.
If, however, the offense screws up, for instance by turning the ball over after a completed pass, then they're not entitled to the extra yardage. Previous spot.
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But if they "screw up" in ways other than fouling following a foul by the opponents, such as by losing possession following a foul during a run, that doesn't change the enforcement spot -- except in the oddball case that's been widely reported around here as screwy, where they gain a better spot by producing a loose ball behind the neutral zone.
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Do you have a comparable rationale for your interpretation?
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Sure, a foul by the defense during a run, and the offense gets the better of either the spot of the foul or the end of the run -- it not mattering if the offense loses the ball afterward because it was the other team's foul, after all. For the defense, a turnover is only as good as a tackle in such a situation. Are you saying that's not enough of an incentive to play defense, because stripping the ball in that interval is no longer rewarded? That the advance beyond the spot of the foul should be negated by a subsequent turnover, so they should change the 3-and-1 enforcement rule in
that case?
BTW, in rugby many referees are practically cruel to the defense in the amount of opportunity to gain an advantage by the attacking side they'll allow before calling a penalty on the defense, and it can be said this reduces the defense's incentive. However, if the penalty's called it still goes back to the spot of the foul, so that can't be used as a comparable example.
Robert