Interesting scenario ruling

[ichigo1057]

Okay so last night I went to see a local Division 2 college football team and an interesting play took place that was questionable. Here is the scenario, Team A will be the kicking team and Team B the receiving. Team A kicks off after scoring, basically opting for a squib kick since there was only 33 seconds left on the clock. A player from Team B touches the ball with his hands on about the 5 yard line but doesn't dive on it. As a result the ball continues into the end zone where Team B eventually dives on it. The question here is what is supposed to be the call from the refs. Is it a Touchback since the ball was downed in the end zone or is it a safety since Team B did not progress the ball back out of the end zone after having touched it outside of the endzone?

[ichigo1057]

Any ideas? I've been really curious about this since I saw it and my knowledge of NFL and Football rules doesn't run that deep per se, so I'm interested in hearing others opinions on the matter.

 

[pantherphan96]

If i had to guess I'd say its a safety since the ball was touched outside the end zone and then downed in the end zone.

[jfra78]

nfl would be safety, i dont know college rules

[KSpan]

Unless the player actively carried it into the end zone or physically batted/knocked it in once the ball's momentum had clearly stopped, it's a touchback. The key factor here is if the 'momentum of the kick' carried it into the end zone even after the touch, which it sounds like it did. Would be a safety if the ball moved into the end zone on the power of the touch rather than the kick.

Was it ruled a touchback?

[ichigo1057]

18 hours ago, KSpan said:

Unless the player actively carried it into the end zone or physically batted/knocked it in once the ball's momentum had clearly stopped, it's a touchback. The key factor here is if the 'momentum of the kick' carried it into the end zone even after the touch, which it sounds like it did. Would be a safety if the ball moved into the end zone on the power of the touch rather than the kick.

Was it ruled a touchback?

Yeah it was ruled a touchback after a lot of discussion from the refs. It was a pretty big decision because the kicking team had just tied the game up with around 25 seconds or so left on the clock. So if it was ruled a safety then the kicking team would have taken the lead and possession of the ball pending a free kick. The kicking team ultimately won in overtime so it didn't effect anything but it was one of those tough rulings the refs had to make.

I figure the refs decided that the guy never really had full possession of the ball and the remaining momentum left from the kick and muff carried it in. Would hate to see it against us in the NFL but would be interesting seeing NFL refs making the decision with replay available and everything.