Why is it a lot of times in a football game that a holding penalty is enforced even though the team that held gained no significant advantage (or no advantage whatsoever) from the holding?
By that I mean, if you were called for holding on a pass that was completed and led to a big gain, that’s one thing, and that 10-yard penalty would make sense. What does not make sense is that sometimes holding will be enforced even if the pass is not completed; worse yet, sometimes a team will lose yardage and the holding penalty is still enforced, thereby making it a double whammy. That second instance is what gets me, because usually, based on what I’ve read in the rules, a team will decline the holding penalty (or any similar penalty) if either the opponents on offense lost yardage or the innocent party gained a significant advantage (e.g. offside called on a play in which the offense gets a first down). But there have been a lot of times where the yardage loss and the holding penalty are combined, and when that happens, it comes across as a “rub-your-nose-in-it” type of penalty, grinding your opponents in the dirt if you will.
Holding is going to get called if the officials see it (and, usually, if it’s egregious…it has often been argued that holding occurs on every single play; it’s a matter of degree which determines if a flag is thrown). The officials throw the flag immediately upon seeing the holding occur; they don’t wait to see if it’s a positive play for the offense.
A defense will often accept the holding penalty, even on an incomplete pass, if it puts the offense in a deeper yards-to-go situation. For example, if, on 2nd-and-8, there’s holding on an incomplete pass play, the defense may choose to accept the penalty, preferring to challenge the offense to try and gain 18 yards (in two plays), rather than giving them only 8 yards to go (but only on one down).
If the offense lost yardage on the play on which holding was called (due to a sack or a negative run), while the defense may choose to take the penalty, rather than the result of the play, in practice, they nearly never do so. The defense doesn’t get to choose to have both enforced. (But, note that, if a 15-yard penalty, such as unsportsmanlike conduct, rather than holding, was called, that’ll get tacked onto the end of the play, rather than being enforced instead of the play result.)
Ah! I see what you’re saying. So, in practice, defenses usually will take the result of the play on a loss of yardage, rather than adding the penalty. Is that what you’re saying? I believe it is, based on what I’ve read.
I disagree. If it was only 5 yards, there would be a greater incentive for an offensive player to try to get away with a hold, and also a higher probability that a referee will call holding (causing more delays). 10 years provides more of a deterrent for both. It is often said that holding could technically be called on just about every play in an NFL game.
Yes, because they don’t have the option of taking both the result of the play and the penalty.
For example: on 2nd and 8, the defense sacks the quarterback for a loss of 6 yards. And, the officials call holding on the offense. The defense has two options:
a) Accept the 10-yard penalty, which would make it 2nd and 18. The prior play (the sack) gets wiped off the books…statistically, it never happened.
b) Decline the penalty, take the sack, and it’s 3rd and 14. In the official stats, the penalty doesn’t get tallied, because it was declined.
That’s true on kick returns, because a holding penalty doesn’t wipe out the play. I believe that, on “regular” offensive plays, it’s 10 yards from the previous line of scrimmage, because enforcement of the penalty wipes out the previous play.
I’m trying to remember if it’s a spot call on plays that cross the line of scrimmage. It seems to me that if a player breaks a long run and there’s a hold in the defensive secondary it’s a spot foul. Not sure and I’m too busy to look it up at the moment.
My memory is that it’s a bizarre if-then-else chain. The penalty for offensive holding is generally 10 yards from the spot of the foul.
The exception is that if the spot of the foul is behind the line of scrimmage, then it’s 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. (This happens quite frequently; offensive linemen holding on pass plays usually fall into this category.)
The exception to the exception is that if the spot of the foul is in the team’s own end zone (which is of necessity behind the line of scrimmage), then it’s a safety.
Nope. Then on 3rd and 10 there’s little incentive for the defense not to mug WRs and it ignores the fact that on any given play the offensive player could score a TD. If a penalty prevents a WR from catching a ball the defense gains for more than just the yards the play happened from the line of scrimmage.
I will disagree. In general, when holding is called, the player being held likely would have had a negative impact on the play such as a tackle for a loss or no gain, a tipped ball, a sack or whatever. With a five-yard penalty, I know that if I’m about to get beat and give up a sack, I can just hold and replaying the down from 5 yards back is better than losing 5+ yards and the down, as would happen with a sack. In such a case, deliberately breaking the rules would be an advantage. Giving up 10 yards is a much harder call where generally it’d only be advantageous to take that if the play is broken, but if it’s a broken play you don’t really get to make that sort of decision because the pocket has already collapsed and the QB is rolling out or whatever.
When did this happen? Offensive holding used to be a 15 yard penalty and was changed to 10 yards in 1974. I’m pretty sure it’s never been 5 yards in my lifetime. Defensive holding is 5 yards + a first down and has always been that as long as I can remember.
That’s all for U.S. pro football. I’m not sure about college.