I know that a team can attempt a field goal on any down.
I know that once a team attempts a field goal it loses possession of the ball regardless of downs remaining.
I also know (thanks to the Giants-Niners fiasco) that a muffed attempt with downs remaining can be retried.
But tonight I learned something new from the announcer commentary during the Falcons-Eagles game. (This situation did not occur in the game, but had happened in another game.) That is, if the kick is blocked and the offense retains possession and downs remain, they can try the kick again. That sort of surprised me, but it made sense once I gave it some thought.
But it got me to thinking, what exactly constitutes a field goal “attempt” that will make a team lose possession?
For example, is there a loophole in #4 that might make #2 seemingly invalid. Say it’s third down and I try a field goal. A defender tips the ball as it sails over the line of scrimmage. The ball misses the uprights and lands out of bounds. Can I try again because 1. the kick was “blocked” 2. it went out of bounds while my team had possession of the ball, and 3. I’ve still got one down left?
The only way the kicking team can keep possession of the ball after missing a field goal is if the kick is blocked BEHIND the line of scrimmage. In that case, the ball is live and can be advanced by EITHER team.
So if it’s not fourth down and there’s time left, you can try again.
However, if the kick is blocked and goes BEYOND the line of scrimmage or just plain missed, the ball goes over to the other team regardless of the down.
If the kick is blocked BEHIND the line of scrimmage and it rolls out of bounds, the defense gets the ball.
Am I mistaken in thinking that a missed field goal is a live ball? Assuming, of course, that it lands infield without going out of bounds or into the end zone.
Seems to me that a FG attempt could, at least in theory, land short, still in fair territory, and be recovered by the kicking team. If so, what down would it be? Does the ground covered by the kick count towards the first down? Does it start over as a new possession? Or do the downs continue where they left off?
Joe_Cool, I don’t know if this will answer your question. I attended a San Diego Chargers/Cincinnati Bengals game in 1978. With 3 seconds left in the half, the Chargers attempted a field goal of around 55 yards. Whereas most teams on defense place all 11 player on the line of scrimmage, the Bengals had a player drop back to the goal line. The field goal attempt was way short and the Bengals player caught the ball and returned it for a touchdown. The crowd at the stadium went crazy and there was much booing throughout half time. A referee got on the PA system just before the second half kickoff and explained the rule. If a field goal attempt does not cross the goal line or touch the ground, the ball is still in play for the defense only. If the ball touches the ground or crosses the goal line, the ball is dead and changes possession. In college football, besides being able to return missed field goals, it is legal to return missed point after touchdown attempts. It is worth 2 points if the defensive player returns the ball across the opponents goal line. It happened during a Washington State/USC game this past season.
I suppose if a field goal doesn’t cross any lines or touch the ground it’s effectively a punt, and the defensive player who catches it can pretty much do what he wants.
This happened just this year: Broncos/Ravens. Denver just assumed that the ball was dead and mostly just stood around while Baltimore returned the missed FG for a touchdown.
The reason you don’t see it too often is that it takes a long enough field goal for 1) the ball to land short of the goalpost and 2) the returner to have enough room to maneuver to get anywhere.
The catch-22 is that since it takes a field goal that long (generally 50 yards or longer) to attmpt to return it, the returner must get pretty far, on average, to make the attempt worthwhile, because the returning team gets the ball from where the missed FG was kicked anyhow.
The upshot is, we see it once every few years, generally on 55 yard field goals at the end of the half or the end of the game, as time expires.
A lot of answers in this thread, but I’m not sure the answer to your question is absolutely clear. The ball crossing the line of scrimmage is the critical item for the offense losing possession. After that, the rules are similar to a punt if the field goal falls short (i.e. the defense can attempt a return, but it is not a live ball for the offense).
I was surprised that the NFL doesn’t allow you to return extra points for two points. I saw very recently an interception on a 2-point conversion try and I was surprised that the whistle blew.
You can only run back an extra point for a score in college football, and that’s only been the case for about the last 10 years.
In the NFL, if an extra point kick is blocked, the play is over, but in college football, the offense can recover it and try to run it in for 2 points.
And if you’re all good kids, I can tell the tale of the 1-point safety.
That isn’t true, the ball CAN cross the goaline and still be returned by the defense. The Ravens/Broncos example cited in this thread was an example of this. Chris McCallister of the Ravens caught the FG attempt about 7 yards deep in the end zone and returned it. I believe this happened in a Jets/Colts game about 4 years ago as well.
Returning FG attempts is standard fare in Canadian football, FWIW.
The uprights at at the front of the endzone, which is 20 yards deep. It is standard practice for the defense to station a player or two (out of the 12 they get on the field) to attempt to return a FG attempt.
This is because even if the offfense misses the FG, but the ball goes out of the endzone or becomes dead in the endzone, the offense gets a point. A point scored by the defense if they successfulyl return the attempt to the other endzone is called a “Rouge”
OK,
the 1-point safety happens on extra points. In the NFL, it can only happen if the offense fumbles the ball on an extra point and then the defense knocks the ball into the end zone (presumably to keep the offense from recovering it) and then the defense recovers the fumble in the end zone.
In college football, since you can run back extra point attempts, it happens in a few more situations. Such as if the defense intercepts a pass, runs out of the end zone, then back in, and is tackled in the end zone.
Such a play doesn’t happen often. ESPN showed one of these once from a Division III game.
nitpick: The rouge is the one-point that the offence scores on a missed field goal, if the ball stays in the end-zone.
Since the ball is live on a missed field goal, the defence may be able to get possession and run it out of the endzone. If they do that, the offence doesn’t score anything. If the defence runs it all the way to the other goal line, it’s a touchdown for 6.
You may be thinking of a run-back on a missed convert. If the offence misses a convert (either 1 or 2 pointer) and the defence recovers the ball and runs it back, they only score 2 points, not 6.
No, you do not get 3 points for punting a ball through the uprights. Nor do you get 3 points for a kickoff that goes through the uprights. You rarely see a ball punted that far because ideally you want the punt to get as close to the 1 yard line and go out of bounds or be downed by your team. If a punt went that far out of the endzone, you put too much leg into it. A kickoff that goes that far is impressive. That would be 75+ yards on the fly. Not many guys can do that.
There is a lesser known rule about dropkicks though. A dropkick is one in which the kicker takes the snap and drops the ball nose down as he simultaneously kicks with his leg, striking the ball just as it is on the up-bounce. It is somewhat of a lost art, so you never see anyone attempt them anymore. However, the rule is that after a punt, you are allowed to dropkick from where the ball is spotted without any defenders on the field. This way you can do it from the line of scrimmage without having to hike it back the standard 7 yards and worry it being blocked. So, if you have a team pinned on their goaline, they punt to the 40 yard line and there is only 3 seconds left before halftime or the game, if you had a dropkicker it would make more sense to send him out to attempt a 50 yard FG rather than a 57 yarder from your placekicker.