IW and flag.....
 

NF Had this happen yesterday in middle school game.

1st and ten from B40. As A22 advances to the B25, A77 blocks in the back at the B30. Line judge (rookie) throws his flag and sounds his whistle.
The runner was at the B27 at the time of the IW.

We replayed the down form the LOS; did not enforce the BIB, because of the replay.

Right or wrong?

Canadian Ruling
 

CANADIAN RULING:

An IW is the only time where the whistle ends the play. Since yards were gained, A cannot re-do the down at the previous line of scrimmage, but must take the result of the play, including the penalty enforcement. When you mention A22 getting to the B25, I will assume that A22 is here when A77 block B20 in the back. So the BIB is enforced from the B25: A 1D/10 @ B35.

The offended team has the right to accept the penalty. If the penalty is accepted, the IW is ignored. So you do have to give the defense the option to accept the penalty. If you did not give the option, then you were wrong unless replaying the down because of the IW was a benefit.

Peace

REPLY: Mike51...you actually got it backwards. The first thing you need to do is deal with the foul. Ask B if they want to accept (penalize A 10 yds from spot of the foul) or decline. If they accept, enforce the penalty and forget all about the IW. Coincidentally, that will give them the ball back where they started, 1st and 10 from B's 40. However, if they decline, they should know that Team A will most likely allow the play to stand where the IW blew it dead. That would give A the ball, 1'st and 10 from B's 27. Clearly, B's choice would be to accept the penalty.

But amazingly, the result you got (replaying the down) would be exactly the same thing as penalizing A for the IBB. So...you got the right answer for the wrong reason.;)

When you IW, pray for a flag somewhere that will be accepted (assuming that flag came before your whistle). An accepted foul before the IW saves your hide.

Advice for the Rookie
 

Some advice to avoid the dreaded IW:

"SEE the ball on the ground WITH a player attached to it"

If you don't have the above, NEVER blow the whistle. You'll catch flack from coaches because the whistle didn't blow but which is worse, being yelled at by a coach or blowing a play dead that wasn't?

While that's good advice, it's not going to help in this situation. You had a new official calling a foul like it was basektball. It had nothing to do with seeing the ball. He's new, he saw the foul, he threw the flag and blew the whistle.

It happens.