Unabated to the Quarterback + Illegal Formation

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

This is an NFL question, because there is no such foul in lower levels of football.

The unabated happens before the snap, though, and illegal formation is a foul simultaneous with the snap, so no, this isn't penalized.

In a HS game on Friday, we had encroachment by the defense right after two players for the offense went in motion at the same time. The defensive coach couldn't understand why that isn't a penalty on the offense, but like my wing told him, the two in motion could always come set for a full second and then it's just a legal shift before the snap whereas the encroachment is a dead ball foul.

We had something similar Friday night as well. A WR lined up in the neutral zone and the HL was trying to get him to step back (trying to prevent a silly penalty). At the same time, a member of the DL jumped into the neutral zone and the LJ flagged him for encroachment. The HL also threw his flag because the WR was still in the neutral zone. None of us realized that and assumed the HL had the defense in the neutral zone. Luckly we checked with him first. Since the WR was technically in the neutral zone before the DL, the foul was on the offense and we moved them back 5 yards. This was all very confusing to anyone but us because everybody saw the defense encroach but the signal was encroachment on the offense. The call was right but we may get dinged on the coach's vote.