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Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Me (Post 693668)

Yeah, because a team would rather give the other guys 2 pts and the ball rather than replaying the down from the 15 (a 13yd gain with no down counted). Do you even think before you answer? Come up with some reasonable situation where any team would not take the penalty.

Make it a punter instead of a QB. A up by 6, 20 seconds to go, 4th down and 30 from the 2. Coach tells punter to catch the snap and step out of the endzone - would rather punt from the 20 without a rush, than punt from the edge of the endzone, risking a block. Punter flubs the snap, picks it up, and in a panic tries to step out of bounds instead of just falling to the ground. Punter is HCT'd in the EZ.

Take the safety and punt from the 20 instead of trying again to punt from the 15, with a rush (and actually punting from about the 3-4 yard line.

And the OPer did not say where the line to gain is either. We do not know if there is a first down if accepting the penalty. Also might make a difference to what a coach might decide.

Peace

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRutledge (Post 693653)

The result of the play is a safety without a penalty. So you tell the team if they do not want a safety then accept the penalty. And based on the overall situation in the game that might not be something we should automatically assume.

Peace

I *frequently* enforce penalties without explaining all the options to the captains/coaches. This would be one of those times.

I had a funny situation where we had a flag from the LJ and I was over at the sideline getting the info -- I turned to the coach and said, "Declined, right?" (as doing so would yield a 4th and 8) and he was confused for a minute and said, "aren't you going to ask my captain" and I said, "Why, you and I are right here." He laughed. Anything complex or complicated or when I'm in the coach's lap goes through the coaches. I don't believe in letting a captain screw up penalty enforcement for us (or the coin toss, for that matter).

Getting back to the topic -- asking A whether they'd want the safety against them (to me) is a not-very-bright move by a white hat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbcrowder (Post 693693)

Exactly.

I've seen this coaching move before. And more than once too.

As with many things in football, "it depends on the other variables (situation)".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Me (Post 693668)

Hey newbie, there are situations where a team would prefer to take a safety.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BktBallRef (Post 693740)

Hey newbie, there are situations where a team would prefer to take a safety.

Those should be obvious, no?

One time I saw a clip from a HS game where Team A was up by 2 points and the ball. They had to win by more than 2 points to make the playoffs. So on the lsat play of the game, the QB ran 50-60 yards behind him for the safety and they ended up winning in OT by a touchdown and went to the playoffs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichMSN (Post 693748)

Those should be obvious, no?

It should at least be obvious when there's a question, yes. I admit that most of the time, the safety is the obvious decision and the extent of my asking of the coach would be something like, "You want the safety, right, coach?"