So I’m watching ESPN the other night and they have highlights from the Grey Cup. No biggie, I know Canadians play football and all, but during the highlights I see that early in the game the in game score (the once annoying, but now absolutely necessary graphis at the top left of the screen) that the score is 1-0. WTF?
In American football, if a punt or failed field goal attempt results in the ball going dead in the end zone or beyond, you guys just start a scrimmage at the 20 or 35 yard line don’t you ?
Well up in Canada, the receiving team has to try and get the ball out of the end zone or forfeit the point. We have big football fields up here, so the single point makes more sense than in your football.
You can indeed. Canadian football sticks a little closer to its rugby origins this way. Happened twice in the last couple of months, in fact; in the Western final, a snap went over the Edmonton punter’s head near his own endzone. He attempted to kick it through the back of the endzone (for a safety) but didn’t put enough boot to it and it stopped about 5 yards short (CFL endzones are 20 yards deep – used to be 25), where it was recovered by the other team for a TD. Luckily his team didn’t lose.
He’d have done better to follow the lead of Saskatchewan’s punter a few games previous who, in a similar situation, tracked the ball down, turned and booted a 50 yard (from the line of scrimmage even!) screamer through traffic about 3 feet off the ground the whole way.
Yes, but not as simple as it looks. Only the kicker or a teamate who was behind him at the time of the kick towards the opponents end zone can jump on it or rekick it for the “kicking team”. Doesn’t happen very often.
Clarification on my post. A blocked field goal or a fumble is the typical instigation for a kicked ball when the kicker realizes its his only chance to nullify an opponents recovery. Any one can be the first kicker, and any opponent of the first kicker can kick it away as well. Of course recovery or the prevention of recovery is the actual objective in most cases.
The rouge rule also leads to situations where on a FG attempt near the end of a half, you’ll stick your own kicker in the end zone to punt the ball back out if it’s missed to avoid giving up the single point. I’ve seen this go back and forth 4 times on a play.
If you read further I also said I had no idea what that jumble meant and was asking for some Canadian help.
Thanks. I get it, a touchback is worth a point. So if a punt or kickoff gets downed in the end zone, the kicking team gets 1. Does the recieving team still get the ball at the 20?
As well, in certain cases both sides can kick the ball, notably in a failed field goal situation. It happened earlier this year in a Toronto-B.C. game. Toronto was up 23-22 in the last two minutes of the game. B.C. was in position for a field goal. If B.C. made it, they would be up 25-23 over T.O. If they missed it, and Toronto failed to get the ball out of the end zone, then B.C. would score a point and the game would be tied, maybe leading to overtime.
The defending team is allowed to put men in the goal zone to try to get the ball out. Toronto put their kicker in the end zone. The B.C. kicker missed the field goal, and the Toronto kicker caught it. Rather than try to run the ball out, he drop kicked it, so it sails out of the end zone, and B.C. misses its chance at a rouge.
Here’s where it got interesting. The ball is still live, and ends up near the B.C. kicker. He scoops it up and tries to kick it back into the end zone - because as long as it ends up there, B.C. scores the rouge for the tie. But as he’s trying to kick it, he fumbles it. (There’s a big scramble coming to him, and since he’s already kicked the ball once and run, he’s now subject to being hit - don’t know if that distracted him.) At any rate, a Toronto linebacker recovers the fumble, and rumbles 48 yards the other way for a touchdown, right at the 15 minute mark of the fourth quarter.
Just an example of why the commentators always say that a lot can happen in the last minute of a CFL game.
I see that Raygun already mentioned putting the kicker in the end zone. Oh well…
I was at the game and when Montreal scored the rouge, one of the Esks fans behind us yelled “that’s the only point you’ll get!” Funny thing is that point was decisive in the game, since that point was the reason Montreal was up 18-10 in the last minute (Montreal had a rouge, a TD, a FG, and another TD). Then the Esks scored a touchdown, so the score was 18-16. If Montreal hadn’t score the rouge, the score would have been 17-16 and the Esks could just have kicked the convert and be off to overtime. Instead, they had to go for a two-point conversion, which they missed, and that was pretty much the game. (Except for the Montreal TD on the Esks’ short kick, but that was just icing.)
My brother-in-law commented to the Esks fan “May not have been the only point they got, but it was the point that counted.” Brave man, my b-in-l.
Or a missed field goal. Not the 20, but the 35 (Canadian fields are 110 yards long). In the event of a rouge resulting from a missed FG attempt, the team scored against can elect to start from the previous line of scrimmage.
I think you’ll find that us Canadian fans are quite proud of our game and the way we play it
I saw an Argo game this year and while in O.T the Argos instead of kicking a fieldgoal to win, just punted it through the endzone and won by one point.
It seemed weird and somehow wrong.
I think after a single the team gets the ball on the 25, not 20 or 35. After a FG, the team gets a choice of receiving a kickoff or getting the ball on its 35. And an interception in the end zone does not result in a single, but rather in the ball on, I believe, the 10.
I saw on TV a Grey Cup game that ended as follows: A FG attempt with 1 second or so on the clock and the score tied, failed. The defending team got the ball about 24 yards deep in the end zone (they still had 25 yd end zones) and seeing that he could not run it out (one other thing: in those days no blocking was permitted on returns–since changed) he kicked it out (perfectly legal). Whoever caught it kicked it back to the end zone (these were not punters, remember) where it was received and kicked right back out. A no yards penalty was called on the reception (meaning an offside player from the other team was within 5 yds of the receiver) and the original offensive team got another chance at a field goal, which they didn’t miss and won by 3. This was in the early 70s.
Another thing that should be explained is the onside/offside rule. When a ball is kicked, the kicker is onside by definition, as is anyone who is at or behind the line drawn across the field at the time of the kick (so everyone is onside on a kickoff, unless they are offside, which is a penalty). If the kicker runs downfield, anyone he passes becomes onside too. All other members of his team are offside and may not be within 5 yards of the receiver when he picks up the ball. Anyone who is onside may not only be within 5 yds of the ball, he has the right to pick up the ball and run with it. And get a first down, score a TD, even punt again. There is no ball rolling dead, eventually someone must pick it up and if it is the punter, the receiver is going to be very embarrassed. This makes a kickoff not that different from any other kick. Only it is, as in US football, illegal procedure for the kickoff not to go 10 yds or to go out of bounds.
The main other differences are: 3 downs, longer, wider field, 5 backs, and unlimited forward motion of backs before the snap.
That happened on Sunday’s Grey Cup: QB Ricky Ray for the Esks threw into the end zone; Montreal player intercepted and fell to the ground in the end zone, so the ball was dead, no score. Montreal scrimmaged on the next play from their 10 yard line.
