By Bill LeMonnier | Posted 1/22/2015
USA Football Rules Editor Bill LeMonnier is a former college referee who currently serves as an ESPN NCAA rules analyst. Click hereto ask Bill a question. Make sure to put “Ask the Official” in the subject line.
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Within NFL rules, the offensive team tries to go for a 1-point conversion that is blocked by the defensive team. The ball went above the defenders’ heads and landed in the end zone. At this moment, is the ball dead or can a defender pick it up and returned to the opposite end zone for a score? If so how many points would that be?
In the NFL, the defensive team can never score on a point-after try. As soon as the defense gets possession of the ball or the kick is blocked and continues past the line of scrimmage, the down is over.
At the college level, if the point-after try is blocked in or behind the line of scrimmage and continues into the end zone, where it touches the ground before being touched by another player, the ball becomes dead and the try down is over. If the kick is touched before it hits the ground, then the defense can pick it up and return it for a possible 2 points.
At the high school level, only the offensive team can score on a try – except for the extremely rare exception of a safety (which would result from a loss of 97 yards from the typical starting spot).
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On fourth-and-23, a personal foul is called during the play on a defensive player and marked off from the spot of the foul. After the ball was spotted, it was still fourth-and-3. Why was this not an automatic first down?
At the high school (and therefore most youth levels), only roughing the passer and roughing the kicker carry automatic first downs. All other personal fouls are 15 yards from the spot of the foul or the previous spot. So if the penalty occurs during the play, you tack on the yardage, but if the offense remains short of the first down marker, it’s still fourth down.
If the penalty is a dead ball foul that comes after the play and the offense remains short of line to gain, then it is defense’s ball.
