I’ve been watching a bit of the opening round of NFL games, and a couple of questions have popped up I’m not sure on. (Only one is Hayne related )
I seem to recall from seasons past that there was somewhat of a focus on reducing ‘excessive celebrating’ of TD’s. Is this still a thing? I saw Carlos Hyde leap up onto the wall and hang out with the fans for minute
I saw a penalty given in I think the Falcons/Eagle game, for the Centre snapping the ball too quickly. If I understood the ref properly the Centre is supposed to wait after crouching before snapping the ball. Is that right? Obviously a very technical penalty. So how long does the centre have to wait?
A question on Hayne, and rotation of players generally. Hayne fumbled his first punt reception, but was given a second shot, where the punter miskicked and the ball went out on the full. So it didn’t appear to me to be a case of being hooked because of the error. But then the next two punt returns were fielded by someone else. Any thoughts on this? Would there still be some aspect of trialing players for the punt return position? Or because they had Hayne playing RB for a while, they don’t tend to have him do another job as well? There appears to be subtle nuance at play that I don;t have the background to understand here.
Everyone on the offensive line (including the center) has to be set for one second before the snap. Not an uncommon penalty, but I can’t recall seeing it being called on the center before.
Leaping up into the crowd (aka the Lambeau Leap) is a common celebration technique. They still get people on other types of excessive celebration. Especially things construed as taunting the other team
Not just the offensive line - everybody on the offense has to be set except one man, who can only move parallel to the line of scrimmage. The play begins on the snap - technically, as soon as the ball moves. False start (the specific penalty called here) can be called on the center for flinching just like anyone else, but it can also be called when he begins to move the ball but doesn’t follow through with a completed snap. I didn’t see the penalty happen in the Eagles-Falcons game, but it sounds like that could have been what happened.
Celebration rules allow the guy who scored a lot of leeway on his own. He gets flagged if he uses any object except the football, if he does some kind of choreographed move with a teammate, or if, as PSXer says, he directs the celebration specifically at his opponent.
As for Hayne returning kicks, I imagine that was due to Reggie Bush’s injury. NFL teams have 53 men on the roster, but only 46 are active for any given game. The inactives are declared before the game, and they don’t even dress. The 49ers have 4 RBs on the roster (Carlos Hyde, Reggie Bush, Jarryd Hayne, and Mike Davis), but Davis was inactive tonight. After Reggie Bush went down in the first quarter, Hayne was the only guy available to give Hyde a breather, or to step in if Hyde was hurt. You don’t want to run the risk of losing your only backup RB (or any other position) in a punt return. If Bush is back next week, I’d expect to see Hayne fielding punts again.
The crackdown on celebrations was to eliminate choreographed group celebrations, and also no using “props.” Eventually they disallowed even using the ball as a prop. One example I always liked that is now illegal would be to spin the ball like a top on the ground, then crouch down next to it and pretend to warm your hands by the “fire.”
Haynes muffed a return. That’s the quickest way for a return man to lose his job. Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter if you also play on offense (or defense.) The returner is the returner. The fact that they didn’t let him return after the muff is no surprise. He may get another shot next week, but one more muff at any point the rest of this season and his return days are over.
I didn’t see the quick snap play in question, but there is a new rule in the past two years that the ref who places the ball needs to be allowed enough time to get to his position about ten yards back from the LOS.
Did not think it was a penalty, I thought is was just a do-over.
Depending on the coach, either one of these, or even both, can be accurate. Some coaches will have you riding pine for just looking at the ball incorrectly (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one). Other’s are more cognizant and protective of position depth and roles.
Hayne wasn’t yanked for muffing the punt return. He was on the field for the two after that. One went out of bounds, and the other was called back on a penalty. He wasn’t used after that because of Bush’s injury, as Enginerd said. He became the backup running back at that point.
That’s what I thought it might be. So I presume they don’t use him on punts for fear of injury? (As opposed to say any issue with getting tired, or something else I’m missing?)
In theory, the entire game. For the regular season that would be 75 minutes, with the game ending after a single 15-minute overtime period. In the playoffs it could last forever.
1st down: run for loss of 2
2nd down: run for loss of 3
3rd down: incomplete pass, penalty on defense (holding), 5 yard penalty, automatic first down
Time came off the clock but you’re in exactly the same situation as you started. Repeat forever.
In reality, long, impressive drives last the better part of a quarter. Somewhere in the 10-12 minute range.
By your example, no more than an entire half, in fact. The third quarter and overtime begin with a kickoff / change of possession, by rule. So, even if your example happened continually through the first half, the second half would begin with a new drive.
Once you are no longer attempting to advance the ball, the refs will whistle the play dead and spot the ball. Same reason players don’t just jog backwards to kill the clock.
Now I suppose you could have a weird east west situation where the defenders just keep missing tackles, but there just isn’t enough field for that to really happen for long.
For the case where there are no penalties or other weirdness like running back and forth, assume 5 seconds per play plus the 40-second clock for 45 seconds elapsed each down. If it takes three downs for every ten yards and you start on the 20, that’s 18 minutes to cover the 80 yards. If your coach is a risk-taker and you take four downs for every 10 yards, then it’s 24 minutes for the 80. And if you start inside to 10 yard line (i.e. 10 sets of downs for a touchdown), you could eat up almost the entire half (you’d still have the last 40 seconds to run off after your final play).
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