Obviously, I’m not a major follower of the game, so can you explain the following plays in the Superbowl:
a) After the Colts got a touchdown, the one who scored was waving his fingers alternatively as “one” or “two”. The announcer merely said he was asking if they were going to try for the extra point, or a 2-pt conversion. What is the latter? I’ve never heard of that. (Is that the same thing as a safety?)
b) On one play, there was a penalty for “neutral zone invasion”, I believe it was called. Is this a fancy term for crossing the line of scrimage before the ball is snapped? If not, what is this?
c) When the Colts challenged a referee’s call and lost the decision, the penalty was loss of a time out. But, what if the team had not more time outs?
d) In the last quarter with about 6 minutes left, as I recall, the Colts had to punt and Chicago received but did not run. The announcer merely said the guy who caught the ball was “unable to run”. Why? There was time on the clock. (There was some reference to a touchback. What is that?)
e) In the last quarter, there was a play ending with unnecesary roughness called against both teams. If I understood correctly, the two penalties canceled each other out, right? Is this a common occurence?
f) I saw a newspaper article beofre the Superbowl describing how each team measures up. One team had trouble in the hashes and the seams (or tight seams, IIRC?) What are the hashes? seams?
After a touchdown, the scoring team has the option of kicking for an extra point, or running/passing the ball over the goal line again for two points. It was added to the pro game a few years ago.
“Neutral zone infraction” is when the defense lines up too close to the line of scrimmage–ie, within the neutral zone.
The punt returner was not able to run because he signaled for a “fair catch”–he gets to catch the ball, but can’t advance it. This avoids the chance of the ball rolling deeper into the receiving teams territory.
Very interesting! As you can tell, I only watch on occasion. And, you can’t ask avid fans these questions during the game. In theory, it could be video taped, but I’ve never really had the opportunity to go back and dissect a game. In junior high, I once intercepted a pass by dumb luck…and I just prayed I was running the ball down the field in the right direction The offense caught off-guard, I ran it in for a touchdown against the true jock-type of quarterback. Boy, was he pissed he had thrown it short. It made my day! My 15 minutes of fame.
Where the neutral zone is the length of the football. Only the person snapping the ball can have any part of their body in the neutral zone prior to the snap.
Also, you cannot challenge a call if you don’t have any timeouts.
Further on point a), the 1-point kick is almost a guarantee, but the 2-point conversion is much more iffy (less than 50% success), so a team will usually only go for 2 if they really need it.
On point c), if you don’t have any time-outs remaining, then you can’t challenge a ref’s call at all. It used to be that you could never challenge a call at all (so as to preserve the refs’ authority), but when they’re wrong, it just makes them look bad. So the current situation is something of a compromise.
d), a touchback is sometimes an option for a team receiving a kickoff or a punt. If the ball goes into the end zone and the receiving team gets to it, they can choose to just hold the ball and kneel instead of running with it. In this case, the line of scrimmage is moved out to the (I think) 20 yard line, which is typically further than the receiver would have been able to get it. The perfect punt is one which hits the corner of the field and bounces out at the 1 yard line or so; this would deny both the possibility of a touchback and a return (but is mostly just luck, with the fluke ways that a football can bounce).
e), unneccessary roughness calls are very rare, period, so it would also be rare for both teams to get one at once. And most fouls by their nature can’t be commited by both teams at once. You do occasionally get situations where there are two different penalties on a play which cancel each other, and also occasionally situations where a team chooses to decline a penalty, if they had a good enough play anyway.
If a team is out of timeouts, they cannot issue a challenge.
Because of the length of time that the ball hung up in the air and the speed of the coverage team, had the returner attempted to return the ball, he would have been hit immediately upon touching the ball. In that situation, a fumble would be likely. So the returner called for a “fair catch”, which means that he was allowed to catch the ball without being hit, but is not allowed to run with the ball.
A touchback occurs when a punt or kickoff goes into the end zone. In that case, the offence will start with the ball on their own 20 yard line. On a punt, punters try(or are supposed to try) to avoid a touchback and instead down the ball inside of the 10.
Yes, the two penalties offset. This doesn’t happen too often.
The hash marks (or hashes) are those short white lines down the middle of the field. I would guess that the article was saying that the Colts’ defence was vulnerable to runs up the middle of the field(between the hashes).
I’m not entirely sure what they meant by seams, but again they were probably referring to the Colts’ run defence. To run the ball, the offence must create a “hole” for the running back to run through. They do this by pushing defensive players backwards or even better, towards the sides of the fields. This creates a “seam” for the running back to run through.
“Seams” is football neep – basically if a team is using a zone defense (where the pass defenders guard an area instead of guarding an individual), there are areas where there is a border between what one pass defender covers and another one does. The “seams” are that border. You try to attack the seams because the defenders might not be sure of who’s supposed to cover you and leave your player open.
b. The neutral zone is the lenghth of the football and it goes sideline to sideline. The center is the only player allowed to be in the neutral zone prior to the snap of the ball. Up to a few years ago, a defender could enter the neutral zone before the snap but had to get back across the line of scrimmage before the snap. The rule was changed allowing an offensive player to move before the snap if a defender is in the neutral zone resulting in a penalty against the defense, this happend in the game. If an offensive player moves before the snap and there is no defender in the neutral zone, it is a penalty against the offense.
c. A team can only challenge a play if they have timeout(s). If a red flag is thrown and the team has no timeouts, it is a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
e. Happens every once in a while.
f. Hash marks are the white lines marking the field vertically, the ball is always put in play between the hash marks. A seam is an open spot in the defense, it depends on the defensive formation. Pro defenses play mostly a zone defense, each player is responsible for an area of the field and the opposing player that enters that zone. A seam is the area between the zones. An offensive strategy is to have 2 players each enter a defender’s zone then have a third player run between his teammates. The third player is often uncovered and an easy target for a pass. You will hear this referred to as splitting a seam.
The defensive team crossed from their side to the width of the ball as it sat on the ground, “the neutral zone”, causing the offensive players to rise up in case they were about to be hit. Since the defense crossed over to cause this, they were penalized.
Wikipedia: A challenge can only be made on certain reviewable calls before the two minute warning in each half when the team has at least one time-out remaining in the half.
A touchback is when the ball goes into or out the back of the end zone. If the returner was unable to run it back, I assume it went out the back. Often, it’s a good decision to leave the ball in the end zone because you don’t think you’ll be able to run it back past the 20 anyway.
If the penalties are of equal yardage on the same play, they cancel out. It’s not that common, kind of like twins. You know some, but not many.
Usually it means that someone hit someone else after the play, and then that person hits back. It’s really annoying when it happens, because the first hit is usually a clear foul, but by reacting to it, it ends up counting for nothing. In the Super Bowl, they didn’t bother to show a replay of it, so it’s hard to say what happened.
(some or all of these may be answered above. For completeness, I’m going to answer them all anyway)
Instead of kicking for 1 point after a touchdown, the offense may elect to essentially score another touchdown, which will be worth 2 points. This can also happen if the kick is blocked or bobbled and the offense scores a TD on the broken play.
In college football, the defense may score a 2 point touchdown by forcing a turnover and running it back or running back a blocked kick. Through an odd set of circumstances, it is possible for a team to score a safety on the PAT attempt, which would be worth 1 point. I forget what the current NFL rule is for the defense being able to score on the try.
A neutral zone infraction is a foul by the defense, where, by entering or crossing the neutral zone (the area between the imaginary line running across the field that intersects the forwardmost point of the football and the line that intersects the rearmost point), causes an offensive lineman to move. Normally, the defense is only guilty of a foul (“offside”) if they are in or across the neutral zone * when the ball is snapped.* The offense is guilty of a penalty (“false start”) whenever they simulate the start of a play, and by definition a lineman moving from his stance is such a foul. Until only a handful of years ago, it was possible for defensive players to step into the neutral zone or feint stepping into the neutral zone and cause the offense to commit a false start. The NZI foul was added to make this tactic illegal.
A team may not challenge a call if they are out of timeouts. They also may not challenge a call in the last two minutes of a half (at this point, all challenges come from “the booth”, who are replay officials stationed in the press box). A team also can only challenge 2 calls per half, although IIRC, if both of your challenges are successful (result in an overturn of the original call), you get another challenge. If that challenge is successful, you do not get another.
If this is the play I am remembering, in this case the receiver called for a “fair catch”. By waving his arm over his head before catching the ball, he loses the right to run the ball, but he gains protection against being it. The play will be dead when he gains possession. Players will call for a fair catch when they do not believe they will have a reasonable chance to make a decent return (because the punt team has covered the punt well). In this case, Jim Nantz was using the phrase “unable to run” to really mean that the punt was kicked so well and the coverage was so good that Hester would not have a chance to attempt to return the kick for a TD.
A touchback occurs when the ball becomes dead in the endzone, but it belongs to the team that was not responsible for putting the ball in the endzone. This usually means the ball was kicked into the endzone (where it may have been fielded), fumbled into the endzone and recovered by the defending team, or intercepted in the endzone. After a touchback, the team that the ball belongs to will take the next snap from their 20 yard line.
This is a very common occurrence. If there are fouls on both teams during the play, they will cancel each other out and the down will be replayed (there are certain complicated exceptions if possession changes during the down). In college ball, this happens no matter the number of fouls or the penalty yardage associated with them. This is generally the case in the NFL, although I think the NFL still has some cases where a 15 yard penalty against one team will be enforced and a 5 yard penalty against the other canceled.
If the fouls occur after the down (eg a fight breaks out), those occurring in the “same incident” will be canceled if they are against opposing teams. If there are separate incidents, the fouls will be enforced in the order they occurred.
Hard to know what this means without seeing the article. “Hashes” usually refers to the 2 sets small dashed lines that run parallel to each other near the center of the field. If the play ends outside the hashmarks, the ball will be snapped from the nearest hash. If it ends between the hashmarks, the ball will be snapped from roughly the point where the play ended.
“Between the hashes” generally refers to the ability of a team to execute (or defend) a power running game - runs that typically go straight ahead, and require powerful execution from the offensive line.
“Seam” is a catch-all term sportswriters and announcers love to use. “He found a seam” means the runner found a lane to run in between some blocks and made a large gain. “A seam in the zone” refers to places that are between areas of responsibility in a zone defense (may be called a “hole” in the zone if the receiver is standing still when he catches the ball instead of running downfield). A “seam route” is usually a route run by a wide receiver or tight end that is straight downfield, with the ball thrown quickly, to take advantage of weak spots in a zone defense.
Funny you should say that given that the extra point try was botched early in the game. Also, I believe the conversion percentage league wide was 52% on the year according to (I think) CBS during the playoffs.
That’s pretty much right on with the exception that the receiving team is not obligated to touch a punt at all but they MUST handle a kickoff that’s gone more than 10 yards (a restriction that comes into play during onside kicks). On a kickoff the ball is live until it is downed and is free for anybody to get. If the receiving team runs away from the kick and the kicking team recovers it in the end zone it’s a touchdown for the kicking team.
As for the fair catch rule, once upon a time it was legal to tee up the returner on every punt just as soon as he touched the ball. After many years of vicious hits and severe injuries the NFL allowed the receiver to catch the ball for free without any possibility of advancement so that he could protect himself and his team’s field position. The returner signals by waving his arm, and that tells the ref and the kicking team that he is taking the fair catch, which allows him to catch it unmolested with (I think) a 3-yard bubble around him where the kicking team cannot attempt to distract him by getting too close. If he fumbles, however, all bets are off and he becomes fair game for hits.
I’m not sure if this is what your newspaper was referring to, but a “seam” is also a receivers route in which you essentially run in a straight line up the field. different from a “streak” because the intention is to catch the ball between 5-15 yards, rather than deep downfield.
If the ball goes into the end zone on a punt, it’s a touchback automatically unless the receiving team touches it and doesn’t down it (they could catch it in the end zone and run it out, fumble it in the end zone, deflect it on the five and have it roll into the end zone and the other team recover it for a touchdown, for example). Doesn’t matter if the receiving team gets to it first since all they’d do is down it wherever they touch it.
The perfect punt doesn’t have to hit the corner of the field at all – if it goes out of bounds before it lands, it’s spotted where the refs judge it went out. This takes a lot of the element of luck out of it, and a good kicker can consistently pin the other team within their own 10.
The offense caught off-guard, I ran it in for a touchdown against the true jock-type of quarterback. Boy, was he pissed he had thrown it short. It made my day! My 15 minutes of fame.