Offensive Penalty During Try

[starman]

Team A scores a TD. During the try, Team B intercepts the Team A's pass and returns it to Team A's 10 yd line where the team B player is brought down by his facemask. What are team B's options?

[AlexH]

Talking NCAA - Team B can choose the 15 yard penalty on the kick off - which they will or decline the penalty. The try will not be replayed.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally posted by starman
Team A scores a TD. During the try, Team B intercepts the Team A's pass and returns it to Team A's 10 yd line where the team B player is brought down by his facemask. What are team B's options?

An a convert attempt, a B interception kills the play. If for some reason during the play there is a flag for A facemask and:

The convert is missed:
- 15 on the kick-off
- 15 on the kick-off to start the next quarter, if the TD occured on the last play of the quarter

The convert is good:
- 15 on the kick-off
- 15 on the kick-off to start the next quarter, if the TD occured on the last play of the quarter
- 15 on the convert and re-attempt

[Theisey]

AlexH I beleive distance penalites are declined by rule for NCAA.
Currently for NF, the play is shutdown as soon as the INT occurred so the FM probably would not happen 90 yards downfield.

However, Oregon did experiment this year with a change to allow the play to continue.
I'd be interested in how this would be handled under the rules there.

[Edited by Theisey on Dec 12th, 2004 at 12:22 PM]

[AlexH]

You are indeed right. I were thinking about UNC fouls by B after B gets possession on a try.

[starman]

I was thinking NCAA, so the play would not be dead at the change of possession. If B can only take the penalty on the kickoff, then it seems like it makes sense for A to commit any foul necessary in order to down B before they score.

[Theisey]

Originally posted by starman
I was thinking NCAA, so the play would not be dead at the change of possession. If B can only take the penalty on the kickoff, then it seems like it makes sense for A to commit any foul necessary in order to down B before they score.

Under current rules, B does not get any penalty option for live ball fouls.

No clue what you mean by "A" committing any foul necessary.
If such a foul is deemed to be flagrant, that player is gone for the day. Any UC fouls will be penalized on the FK.

[starman]

thanks. I meant that if it looks obvioius that b is going to score, then A could just pull him by the facemask to make sure that he doesn't score. A 15 yard penalty on the kick off doens't seem as a bad as giving up 2 points.

[AlexH]

Maybe a situation for referees discretion.

[mcrowder]

Yes, it's right there in the section of the rulebook under Referee's Discretion right after the part where it tells us to make up the rules as we go, and to ignore the rest of the rulebook.



While it's true that the rules in this scenario give A a free pass on any non-USC foul when B is trying to score on a try, I've never seen A foul on purpose in order to prevent a score by B. The sitch is rare enough that I'm sure no coach ever discusses it in practice, and players are simply not thinking that much in reaction to a play like this.

If a team is so well coached on special teams that they have time to discuss this scenario with their players, more power to 'em.