Losing a down

[ChickenOfNC]

Don't have my rulebook with me. At what point can losing a down be corrected? The scenerio:

Team A 4th down, they go for it and do not reach the line to gain. After this and before team B snaps the ball, the crew realizes they lost a down during A's series, and it should actually now be 4th down. Correctable?

Rule reference?

[HLin NC]

No rules coverage- only errors mentioned in the rules is for timing error correction. You're staking virgin territory whatever you do.

[mbyron]

I agree that this is not in the rule book. I would fix it if discovered before the next snap (or kick).

[ajmc]

Just like counting players on EVERY down, confirming and agreeing on what down it is on EVERY down should be pure habit. If any one official has a different number, he should be perfectly comfortable in stopping everything, getting together and verifying the correct down.

Simple solution to avoiding looking really silly.

[bossman72]

I can forseeably change it before the team's series is over. Once there's a change of possession, I would have a hard time correcting this.

[Robert Goodman]

OK, so supposing it's discovered before the ball is made ready for play by the other team -- or maybe even a little after, but before they're on the ball -- or even just before they've snapped it -- or even later, if you want to go that far. I do think a correction is called for up to some point, but what fix do you apply?

Do you say that 4th down should've been labeled 3rd, and give a real 4th down? What if one or both teams thought the phony 4th down was really 4th down? They would've played that down differently, I think.

Do you go back to the first mislabeled down? Teams may have shown each other things in the meantime that they were keeping as surprises.