Possible Holding

[RochesterRef]

OK gents here's my first question for you all this season:

This past Thursday I was HL at JV game between two evenly matched teams. With 2 minutes left and Team A trailing 26-21, they take over on their own 30. First play from scrimmage on the drive, out of the double wing they run a sweep to my side. A severely undersized lead blocker tries to make a block on a LB, but the linebacker blew the blocker up, driving him backwards. As A is falling backwards to the ground, he still is engaged with B and they both fall to the ground. Team Bs coach is screaming at me for holding, as team A breaks a huge run down to Bs 20. I say its not holding as it was Bs momentum that took him to the ground and not As block. Moral of the story is A got stuffed on the 4 yard line and B won the game anyways, but I was just looking for input on whether or not I handled that play correctly.

[jTheUmp]

It's not holding, unless the blocker grabbed and pulled the linebacker's jersey while he (the blocker) was falling backward.

[umpirebob71]

By "engaged," you mean what? Were they just in contact with each other or did the blocker have ahold of the defender's jersey? That's going to be the difference.

[RochesterRef]

He did have ahold of his jersey. It's becoming more apparent to me the more I think about it that I should've thrown it. I'm just glad it didn't affect the outcome. At the time I looked at it and said to myself "the defender knocked over the blocker and now they're both going to the ground." So it's holding because he had his jersey even though in my opinion it wasn't pulling the jersey that caused either player to go down?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by RochesterRef

He did have ahold of his jersey. It's becoming more apparent to me the more I think about it that I should've thrown it. I'm just glad it didn't affect the outcome. At the time I looked at it and said to myself "the defender knocked over the blocker and now they're both going to the ground." So it's holding because he had his jersey even though in my opinion it wasn't pulling the jersey that caused either player to go down?

No. Having hold of the jersey, in itself, isn't holding.

If the player tries to get away and the jersey separates from the body, yes. Also, if the grab of the jersey in combination with the leverage causes the player to go down (the blocker pulls the defender down on top of him as he's going down) it's holding.

Sounds to me that may have happened in your play, but if not, just chalk it up to a coach seeing something that wasn't there. Happens on just about every play where a defender goes down, BTW.