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One of the Worst Rules in All of Sports

JMR

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Eliminate the "tuck" rule. We all know a fumble when we see one. This is a bizarre loophole in what logically appears to be a fumble. What difference does it make that the QB was trying to tuck it away? That is asinine. A running back can't claim he was trying to tuck it away and neither can a TE or WR. Why is the QB so special that he's protected from his fumbles?
Tuck rule has been gone for 4 years now.
 

dkmightyhammer

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It should just go back to the spot where he lost control, in this instance inches from the goal line, just as it would had he fumbled on the 40 and it went out of bounds. That's not arbitrary at all.

Actually, if you fumble at the 40 yard line they will spot it on the 40 yard line. If your fumble goes out of bounds literally on the goal line or in the endzone they can't spot the ball where it went out of bounds without awarding a TD to the offense. I'm assuming that is why the rule is written the way it is.
 

Vitamike

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Still doesn't change the thought that it's a stupid rule that is totally unfair to the offense.
As a fan of the offensive team, it's a tough pill to swallow when it happens to you. Especially in a defensive game (That game was 10-13 Hawks with minutes left) It took away a long drive into easy field goal range at the very least.

What I thought was odd, they weren't in an officials review to review a fumble, it was in review to see if the TD called on the field stood or didn't stand.

Usually if they are looking at one aspect in review, they don't look at another. For instance, if a player was called for targeting and it gets overturned under an official review, if they see a fumble that wasn't called on the field, and was clearly recovered by the defense, do they change possession or does the HC have to use a challenge for possession?

The Rams would have been better off if the official called that short of the goal. Then Seattle would have been forced to use a challenge, or the Rams could have used an uptempo snap to avoid a Seattle challenge.

But imagine if they did call it short and the Rams challenged the short spot of TD only to find the end result was a touchback. :lol:

Good grief, that would have been ten times worse and the Rams would have lost a challenge very early in the game....
 

Dude

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More specifically the ball barely slipped out of his hands inches from the pylon, it was not a loose ball that bounced and then hit the pylon. Not that it makes a big difference, a fumble is a fumble, but it just make the penalty to the offense seem that much worse.
I agree, that would be a fumble. It is a strange rule that the D gets the ball since the D has to recover the loose ball before it goes out of bounds anywhere else on field to gain possession.
:scratch:
 

redseat

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How is crossing the goaline not considered a TD? It broke the plane.. Isn't the ball supposed to be considered "dead' once that happens?
 

dkmightyhammer

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I got one that maybe someone can explain to me because it didn't make sense when I saw it last weekend. In the TB-NE game Brady throws a TD to Hogan at the goal line. The thing is that Hogan catches the ball while he jumps up in the air and then is pushed out of the endzone to about the half yard line by a defender. His feet don't come down until he is on the 1/2 yard line so isn't that technically where the ball should have been spotted? If you get pushed out of bounds before your feet come down it's not a TD so what is the difference here?

I couldn't find a GIF of the play but if you forward the video in the link to the 2:00 mark you'll see what I'm talking about.

Watch New England Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers [10/05/2017] - NFL.com
 

Hank Kingsley

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How is crossing the goaline not considered a TD? It broke the plane.. Isn't the ball supposed to be considered "dead' once that happens?

Only if a Seahawk is not there to illegally bat it out of the endzone....
 

Darrell Green Fan

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I don't know. It's one of the few rules where the defense catches a break. The endzone is it's own area on the field and gets special rules. Safeties for sacks in the endzone, or touchbacks on kickoffs are examples of "endzone" rules not applied to other areas of the field. Like, why does a kickoff going out of bounds at the one yard line give the offense an automatic 40 yards of field position but kicking it through the endzone only gets you 20? But if you punt the ball out of bounds at the 1 yard line that is considered a perfect kick? Its an oddity of the game that we just live with.


All true but they don't carry the weight of a rule that turns second and goal from the 6 inch line into a touchback and turnover when the defense did not even touch the ball.
 

Hank Kingsley

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I got one that maybe someone can explain to me because it didn't make sense when I saw it last weekend. In the TB-NE game Brady throws a TD to Hogan at the goal line. The thing is that Hogan catches the ball while he jumps up in the air and then is pushed out of the endzone to about the half yard line by a defender. His feet don't come down until he is on the 1/2 yard line so isn't that technically where the ball should have been spotted? If you get pushed out of bounds before your feet come down it's not a TD so what is the difference here?

I couldn't find a GIF of the play but if you forward the video in the link to the 2:00 mark you'll see what I'm talking about.

Watch New England Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers [10/05/2017] - NFL.com

Forward progress I believe.
 

Darrell Green Fan

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Actually, if you fumble at the 40 yard line they will spot it on the 40 yard line. If your fumble goes out of bounds literally on the goal line or in the endzone they can't spot the ball where it went out of bounds without awarding a TD to the offense. I'm assuming that is why the rule is written the way it is.

If you fumble at the 40 and the ball advances to the 41 and goes out of bounds it's spotted at the point of the fumble, the 40. No reason why they can't do the same with a ball fumbled at the 1/2 yard line. Spot it at the place of the fumble, the 1/2 line.
 

dkmightyhammer

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Forward progress I believe.

That sort of makes sense except that he can't technically "catch" the ball until both feet land in bounds, which in this case puts him short of the TD. I don't think you can get forward progress until you've actually caught the ball can you? I can totally see he is in the endzone with the ball, but he hasn't "caught" the ball yet there. He doesn't complete the catch until his feet land and then he's immediately stopped short of the TD. I still think that one makes no sense. But I'm probably wrong, I often am.
 

boogiewithstu2007

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Watching the Rams/Hawks game I saw that play again where the runner stretches out to get the ball over the goal line, loses control, the balls goes out of the end zone (or in this case hit the pylon) and the ball is awarded to the defense in a touch back. It favored my team in the past and even then I never understood why the defense was given such a reward. Seems to me marking the ball back to the spot of the fumble with the offense retaining possession is the only fair thing to do, just as they do if the fumble went out of bounds at the 40 or whatever.


I look at it this way, with all the rules favoring the offense, it's nice to see a rule favoring the defense.. You should have to control the ball past the goal-line...
 

Darrell Green Fan

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I got one that maybe someone can explain to me because it didn't make sense when I saw it last weekend. In the TB-NE game Brady throws a TD to Hogan at the goal line. The thing is that Hogan catches the ball while he jumps up in the air and then is pushed out of the endzone to about the half yard line by a defender. His feet don't come down until he is on the 1/2 yard line so isn't that technically where the ball should have been spotted? If you get pushed out of bounds before your feet come down it's not a TD so what is the difference here?

I couldn't find a GIF of the play but if you forward the video in the link to the 2:00 mark you'll see what I'm talking about.

Watch New England Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers [10/05/2017] - NFL.com

Yeah Hank nailed it. He caught the ball and it was over or on the goal line, it's a TD just like when a RB stretches the ball over the goal line and is then pushed back.
 

Hank Kingsley

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That sort of makes sense except that he can't technically "catch" the ball until both feet land in bounds, which in this case puts him short of the TD. I don't think you can get forward progress until you've actually caught the ball can you? I can totally see he is in the endzone with the ball, but he hasn't "caught" the ball yet there. He doesn't complete the catch until his feet land and then he's immediately stopped short of the TD. I still think that one makes no sense. But I'm probably wrong, I often am.

I guess completing the catch allowed for it? I've seen it before with Witten too. Although his leap wasn't that high....
 

Vitamike

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Probably because there is no possible way to give the ball back to the offense at the spot of the fumble. Doing so would result in a TD. The only way to give it back to the offense would be to pick a spot on the field arbitrarily and how is that fair to the defense? In the Rams fumble scenario the defense has no chance to recover the fumble so why should the offense (who fumbled) automatically be allowed to keep the ball, and even better, get it at the one yard line?
You had me until the last sentence, because if there was no chance than it wouldn't be a fumble at all as a fumble has to occur in the field of play which gives them a chance to recover the ball. I'll agree there was little chance, but still a chance none the less. (Which was about as much a chance as the Rams had at recovering the ball themselves in bounds)
 
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