Interesting way to think about offsetting fouls

[Texas Aggie]

This may not be anything new to most of you guys, but tonight a play we had just hit me differently.

I forget the down, but ball on A's 20. A's run breaks loose into the secondary, and he is far downfield. About the B 30 or so, A blocks in the back, then about 10 yards further, another A holds a player (bear hug tackle, actually). A eventually scores. I have the two downfield fouls.

So I turn back to stop the clock and report my stuff to the R (three man), and the LJ is stopping the clock as well. Turns out he had defensive facemask (5 yards) in the backfield on his side before the A player broke loose. So after we clarify fouls on both teams, we offset, and go back to the 20.

At halftime, I tell the guys that the weird part of the play is that B's foul actually helped B. Without the facemask foul, A gets the ball, first down, about the B45 or 50 after the other fouls are enforced. Its just ironic in a lot of these offsetting situations, one team's rule infraction helps, rather than hurts, them.