Force play
 

NFHS rules. A's ball on their own 5 yard line. The snap is muffed and the ball hits the ground and bounces up. While in the air, B1 attempts to recover the loose ball but muffs it in to A's end zone where it is muffed by A1 and the ball goes out beyond the end line. What's the ruling?

Sounds like the "force" begun by the snap, never ended, and the result would be a safety.

Safety.

+1

That's what I had. The fact that the ball hit the ground first does not change who provided the initial force.....A's snap. This play actually happened in a game and the R initially ruled safety but then changed it to touchback.

Now if the ball was on the ground slowly rolling around in the field of play and B muffs it which causes the ball to go in to A's end zone then that's when either a safety or touchback is the call if the covering official determines that B's muff was a new force or not.

That's what I had, safety. The fact that the ball hit the ground first does not change who provided the initial force which was the snap by A. This play actually happened in a game and the R first ruled safety but then changed it to touchback.

Now if the loose ball was slowly rolling on the ground in the field of play and B's muff causes it to go in to A's end zone, that is when the result would either be a safety or touchback if the covering official determines that B's muff constitutes a new force or not.

Judgment call by the covering official. If the ball wouldn't have gone into the EZ except for B's muff, it's a TB. Otherwise, a safety.

It better be obvious that is not the case, otherwise the wize thing to do is make it a safety.

Peace

Snapping from inside the 5, I'm going to need to see a whole heck of a lot to deem this a touchback. 99/100 this will be a safety.

What kind of bounce "up"? If it was a funny bounce such that it moved toward B's end line, that'd change a safety to a touchback ruling. But just up, and it's still A's responsibility, since it's their pass.

If you changed it, you'd be wrong.

There was a very similar play on Facebook but it was fumbled on B’s 2 yard line and went into the end zone. Is the same play that’s on Facebook?


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