QB fake taking a knee

The Game Room
1

Mike Leach is upset because he tried a little trickery at the end of the first half of the TT - UT game. His QB faked taking a knee and then got up to run a play. Unfortunately for Tech fans, the officials also bit on the fake and blew their whistles. Play over.

I say cry me a river. You tried to fool everyone and it worked. The officials are trying to keep the QB safe. Do you really want the officials to not stop the play if they aren’t positively sure that your QB’s knee touched the ground? Do you really want your QB in that position?

I know that Dan Marino did the same thing once and got away with it. I think the NFL changed their rules making that illegal. I still think it’s a dick move.

2

You should really clue the refs in to the fake before this type of trickery, even a “watch our guy’s knee closely on this kneel” is enough.

3

Yep playing by the rules and having a ref bonehead a call. Bad stuff, that.

4

So will Mike Leach have the same feelings if in the next game his QB does take a knee and an opponent wipes him out in the belief that “he was just faking again?”

5

The announcers corrected this later in the game. During halftime, they talked to the refs and they quoted the rule for the announcers.

The gist of the rule is that "once the quarterback *begins the motion *of kneeling, it is considered a kneel-down and the play can be blown dead.

So the fake kneel wouldn’t have worked anyway. It is illegal in Big XII ball. So nyah nyah nyah, Tech. Go home.

6

That’s what I get for fast forwarding through halftime. Sounds like a good rule to me. I surprised that Leach didn’t know it. He’s supposed to be a brainiac.

7

Actually, the Dan Marino play was a fake spike. Same idea, though.

8

Did the NFL change their rules on fake spikes? I seem to recall Payton Manning attempting one a few years ago.

9

Hmmm. I thought that Marino actually took a knee and then got up since the NFL required contact to be down. I could be misremembering.

10

Definitely a fake spike NYTimes link

11

Marino’s fake spike was a great play, and if the NFL ever passed a rule against it, I didn’t hear about it.

12

I can’t find a video of the fake spike, but from the articles it sounds like Marino did all the faking before the snap - yelling “Clock! Clock!” and miming that he was going to spike the ball. I don’t think you could pass a rule against that - faking out the defense for what play you’re going to call is just part of the game. If he took the snap and then faked throwing the ball into the ground, I can see where you’d want to pass a rule against that for QB protection purposes.

13

There’s nothing wrong with a fake spike, because it’s obvious if the ball is still in the quarterback’s hand or not. It may not be so obvious whether the quarterback’s knee ever touched on a fake kneel-down.

Plus, the rule as interpreted by the officials seems to fit in perfectly with the way the game is usually called; when a quarterback scrambles, then “gives himself up”, the play is over from the point where he begins to slide. By kneeling, the quarterback has given himself up.

14

Here’s the NCAA rule book (PDF, page 82):

15

IIRC, the NCAA instituted this rule in the late 1980s after Rodney Peete tried the same trickeration (vs UCLA?).

Oh,and thanks, BRICKER, for the actual rules cite.

16

Just FTR, I love football announcer words like trickeration. You made my morning SleepyDuck. I’m easily amused though. :wink:

17

He only faked that he was going to fake taking a knee.