Muff Kick

[Robert Goodman]

The only reason this is paradoxic is that a series never starts in the middle of a down. It can start only at the beginning of a down, always as 1st. So this is why regardless of what happens to that pass, it's going to be 1st down. Even if it were an illegal forward pass, the "loss of down" would be inconsequential. And all the major codes agree on this.

Also, once K3 has recovered the ball, I don't think there's any sequence of subsequent fouls whose penalty enforcement could possibly restore the previous down. Or is there?