Illegal Forward Pass

[dumbref]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

In all my years of officiating I have never heard of the R having this call. He's probably 4-5 yards BEHIND the QB while the U at a minimum (and the HL or LJ if they are on the LOS reading a scramble) have a perfect view of this. The ultimate responsibility is the U on a 5-man crew.

In a crew of five, (excluding any GL procedures) I feel the wing's first responsibilty has to be the receivers and should not come back toward the LOS until they are certain the QB is beyond the LOS - so I do not expect help from them. The U can help if the QB is between him and the box - but to the LJ side he has no reference point. I know he steps up on pass, but it is guess as to whether he is exactly on the line.

I agree with MikeL - R needs to take charge just as he describes. The old days of R staying in the middle of the field and never moving is over. He has to be mobile enough to cover this play!

I made a huge assumption on this play - I am assuming the original read was pass - not option. After re-reading the post, I could not tell.