Obviously, I don’t follow football. Maybe this is a common maneuver, but I must ask…
Can a football team (college? Pro?) set up to punt for a field goal,
but at the last second run the ball down the field and into the endzone for a touchdown?
Thanks,
Well, you can’t “punt” for a field goal. But yes, you can fake a field goal. That’s perfectly legal, and is a (relatively) common occurance. It happens once a week or so, between the NFL and D1 college football.
Many teams use a backup quarterback as the holder on place kicks. They have good hands, they’re accustomed to getting snaps from the center, and they have time to practice. And if a team decides to pull a fake, the ball’s in the hands of an experienced passer and decision-maker.
And in a field-goal formation, the kicker is an elligible receiver. At least one kicker has caught a pass and gained enough yards for a first down.
I’ve also seen it work the other way. A team lined up a in a regular formation on fourth-and-short, and then had their running back make a surprise punt. He wasn’t a great punter, but he didn’t have to be, the other team didn’t have anyone back to receive.
Call me dumb, but doesn’t “punt” = “kick”? Or, is a punt a certain kind of kick? What’s the difference? - Jinx
There are different kicks, with different intentions.
Field Goal. The goal is to get the ball through the uprights for 3 points. Almost always (ignore drop kick), it’s done with a holder, a la Lucy and Charlie Brown. The ball is dead after the kick, whether it went through the uprights or not.
Punt. The goal is to get yardage. Roughly speaking, the other team gets the ball a) where it lands, with special rules for going over the end or sidelines, b) where the reciever caught it, after signalling for a fair catch, c) where the reciever was tackled after returning the punt as far as possible. The goal is to have the other team start as far back as possible. The punt does not have a holder, the punter holds it outright himself and kicks it.
Kickoff. Similar to the punt, except the kick is done from a special device, the “tee”, there is no holder.
There is more to say about any of these, but at a basic level, that’s the difference. Kickoffs and punts are to get yardage, field goals are to get points.
A punt is a kick when you drop the ball onto your foot and kick it. The center sends the ball back directly to the punter. The ball generally goes very high in the air (“hang time”) to let the kicking team get down and cover the receiver. It is used when it’s 4th down and you need to give the ball to the other team. A good one forces the other team back so they have further to go to score.
With a field goal (place kick), the ball is centered to a holder, who sets it up for the kicker (like Lucy and Charlie Brown, though they usually connect). It is used to score field goals and extra points.
Other kicks:
A drop kick – rarely seen – where you drop the ball onto the ground and kick it. The ball is centered to the kicker. It can be used to kick a field goal, but I have never seen one used and it may no longer be legal.
A kickoff – the ball is put on a plastic tee and kicked. This is how the ball is put into play after a score* or at the start of a half.
*excluding a safety. Due to the nature of the kick, teams who kick after a safety is scored upon them usually punt; they want the hang time.
Not entirely accurate. The ball is dead once it passes through the endzone. If the kick falls short it is still a live ball and can be returned. This happened earlier in the year. A team lined up for a 60 yard field goal and the kick feel way short. The defending team had a player standing in the end zone waiting to catch it if the kick fell short. The player then ran the ball 107 yards for a defensive touchdown.
Correction noted. Like I said, you can say more about any of these kicks. Given Jinx’s obvious newbie level re: football, it didn’t seem worth getting down to that fine a level of detail.
Just one more thing. The “kicker” and the “punter” are generally two different guys. The kicker kicks PAT, kicks off the tee, and kicks field goals. While the punter, just punts.
This was in a NFL Monday night(?) game a few years ago.
The team set up for a short punt and the punter “shotputted” the ball into the coffin corner to resemble a punt rather than a pass. I don’t recall if this trick pass was successful or not.
There is also the “free kick,” which occurs after a safety – the team against whom the safety was scored has to kick back to the other team, and may do so either with a place kick (without a tee, I believe), a drop-kick, or a punt, as they choose.
Now, here is a really odd variant: a team receiving a kick of any kind has the option of making a fair catch and taking a free kick (without a tee) at a field goal – with no defensive rush.
http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/fairkick.html
Presumably, the reason you never see this (at least I haven’t) is (a) because there are so few cases when a punt or kickoff would be fair caught within any reasonable distance of a field goal – although if the offense is punting from its own goal line, or if there were a really short kickoff following a penalty, it could happen; and (b) because if you’re close enough to the goal line to have a reasonable shot at a field goal, you’d try for the touchdown. However, I can imagine some circumstances in which this rule, if more widely known, might be useful (e.g., fair catch a punt near the end of a game at the 50 yard line, trailing by 2 points, with only a few seconds left).
And to answer the OP, now that types of kicks are sorted out, yes, both “fake field goal” and “fake punt” plays are perfectly legal.
Fake field goals are pulled more often because, as noted, the holder is usually a backup QB. Also, fake punts would be getting pulled further back and risk leaving the opponent in very good field position if they fail.
Here’s a fake punt play:
http://eteamz.com/football/instruction/tips/tip.cfm/400/
Remember Efran Herrera, the “dangerous” receiver? Herrara was the Seattle placekicker. They secretly had Herrera practice catching passes, because when it became obvious that a fake field goal was in progress, teams were forgetting that the kicker was in the backfield and an eligible receiver. Nobody was going to pay any attention to Herrera. They pulled it off a couple of times before teams got wise and starting making sure they covered the kicker on fake field goals. What made it particularly entertaining was that Herrera looked as little like a receiver as anybody could - he sort of waddled down the field and stood around in the open.
Not entirely correct. The ball is dead once it hits the ground. The play you are referring to was in the Monday Night Football game between the Broncos and the Ravens. Elam’s 60 yarder fell short, and was caught 7 yards IN the endzone, and was run back for a touchdown.
Field goal attempts that fall short and do not pass the line of scrimmage are live balls, whether they hit the ground or not.
The Broncos can lick between my toes.
I vaguely recall something about a team having to tell the referees they were going to try a fake punt/field goal, so that the refs knew what to watch for. Can anyone confirm this, or am I making it up?
Is that if a “player elegible” position substitution is involved… kinda like when the Fridge scored in the Superbowl?
In the NFL, you have to tell the official that you are lining up in an eligible position despite having a lineman’s number (50-79) EXCEPT on punts and field goals.
Ignoring the screwball “free kick field goal after a fair catch”, you can really divide kicks into two categories:
A scrimmage kick can be a punt (on any down) and you give up possession after it crosses the line of scrimmage and you can’t score any points on the kick. Or you can try to place it on the field and kick it through the uprights for 3 points (or 1 on an extra point.) In either case, if the kick is blocked and the ball is behind the line of scrimmage, the kicking team can pick it up and run with it and try to get a first down. If it goes beyond the line of scrimmage, only the defense can pick it up and advance it. If the kicking team touches it and stops it, then the ball is dead and depending on the situation, the ball is placed at a particular spot.
A free kick happens after a team scores (either a touchdown, field goal, or safety). After the first two, the team gets a free kick (which everyone calls a kickoff) from the 35 or 30 (college or pro). Once a free kick travels 10 yards, either team can recover the ball, although the kicking team can’t advance the ball (they can just recover it.) Also this kick must be from a tee.
After a safety, the free kick is from the 20. And the ball can be kicked from the ground with a holder (NFL) or off a tee (college) or it can be punted (both). And like a kickoff, it is live for both teams after the ball goes 10 yards.
You can’t block a free kick and there are rules about where players on the receiving team must be stationed.
Normally ineligible receivers (e.g., offensive tackles) have to report when they will be lining up as eligible receivers.
You don’t have to report trick plays to the officials beforehand, but the coaches have a pre-game meeting with officials wherein they can discuss issues in the game (e.g., players the coaches want the refs to watch out for because they have a reputation for holding) as well as alerting the officials to trick plays they will be trying (so the officials don’t inadvertently call a penalty or stop an actually-legal play) – but there’s no obligation to do it.
And adding further useless info, in college football, if you are wearing 50-79, you can’t line up in an eligible position EVER. You are automatically in an illegal formation if you try that.
No, it isn’t–not in pro football. Any type of kick (kickoff, punt, or FG) can be picked up off of the ground in the end zone and returned. There was a case a few years ago where an abandoned punt was rolling around in the end zone, but the officials hadn’t blown the whistle yet, so a player picked it up and ran 100+ yards for a touchdown. The ball is not dead until it either (a) comes to rest; (b) is downed by a player on either team; or © goes out of bounds or beyond the end line.
In college football, a kick which strikes the ground in the end zone before being touched by a player on the receiving team is instantly dead.