Saw this in a game and thought-- Oh My..

[kfo9494]

I did not call last week due to a nagging back problem but I happen to watch a local high school football game played in our area.
As usual I look more at the officials than I do the players and saw something that I hope never happens to me--

The offensive snaps the ball to the QB and he drops back - it is going to be a screen pass way out in the flats. The QB get rushed and has to throw the ball early, he throws close to the sideline and nearly parallel to the sideline. The LineJudge is standing within five yards of the receiver and as the ball approaches he gives an arm motion indicating it was a backwards pass. The ball hits the ground, and what seemed to be like three seconds(I am sure it was more like one second) the referee blows his whistle indicating a incomplete forward pass.
And as you know one side came unglued.
the ref and the LJ talked about it and then came out with an Incomplete Pass.
>
Now both sides are upset since it will now be 4th down.
.
How would you handle this situation?

[JugglingReferee]

Had this 4 times on my Labour Day NCAA game. R is supposed to look to the wing before he signals incomplete. If the wing has a backwards pass, R lets it go. Wing lives and dies with the call.

[Mike L]

We took care of this problem but dropping the backward punch on backward passes. Either the covering official is going to kill it because it was forward or the teams will eventually figure it out if it's live.

[ajmc]

In situations where it's been decided that the "punch" signal will be used, there has to be an understanding that if another official calls the pass forward and incomplete, the one armed punch signal simply continues into a two armed incomplete signal to support the forward pass judgment.