Spotting the ball, close to line-to-gain

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by InsideTheStripe

It did when responding to your post "as written".

No, I said the official runs to the spot. You changed that to "running straight to it (regardless of your position on the field)."

Originally Posted by InsideTheStripe

I was simply pointing out that no one runs completely straight. You lose more precision the further you run.

The official running to where he saw the ball become dead. He is not trying to spot the ball on the sideline and run straight in.

[With_Two_Flakes]

A wing official will square off to every spot he is getting. To be pedantic - every spot unless the spot is actually on the sideline or very near to it.

The key point of this thread is about:-
a) on routine plays he comes in just a few steps and doesn't come too far inbounds.
b) if there is trouble at the pile, then he may come in further to make his presence felt.
c) on spots close to a 1st down, he comes all the way in and is handed the ball so he can put it exactly where he wants it.

But on all of these occasions, his movement is done by a "squaring off" motion. Getting into the squaring off habit keeps the accuracy.

[LDUB]

I saw a NFL game today where the wing official was well in to the opposite side zone when marking the spot.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by LDUB

I saw a NFL game today where the wing official was well in to the opposite side zone when marking the spot.

I love cross-field mechanics. With a pile up in a sidezone, the far wing is the best one to get a spot.

[Welpe]

If anybody caught the Houston @ Arizona game yesterday, there was a great example of wings crashing in on short yardage situation. On 4th down of Arizona's goal line stand at the end of the game, both wings came all the way inside the hashmarks to mark the Houston runner short of the endzone.

This is something I haven't paid a lot of attention to before but it looked crisp and I had no doubt as a viewer that they had their spot.