Rules Clarification -Pushed Out of Bounds

by LiveNDieBlue on Jul 24, 2008 5:09 PM CDT

Hey, Clarify for me the new rule Change. The NFL will no longer allow a catch to be determined as IN BOUNDS if the player is pushed out of bounds before his feet come down.

SO, does that mean that all defensive backs should push the receivers as hard as they can to try and get them out of bounds before they can come down with both feet in bounds???

And what happens if a DB is able to military press the guy up in the air long enough to run him out of bounds, how do they determine that?

Or how about an on-sides kick where it goes 10 yards and takes a high hop and someone from the kicking side jumps and grabs it but lands on a pile that then takes a couple of steps and dumps him out of bounds. Clearly he would have landed in bound and recovered the ball for his team but since his feet never touched would they rule it as the ball goes to the Receiving team because of this rule change? Bill Parcells would know wouldn't he!

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Not likely to happen but the way the rule was changed, I suppose it could happen

The other rule that I think will cost marion Barber and the cowboys a few times this year is the hands to the face or punching motion that Marion Barber uses quite a bit when rushing to fend off tacklers, now it’s a fifteen yard penalty. I really never understood why it was legal for running backs and receivers to do it but offensive and defensive linemen weren’t.

by Deke on Jul 24, 2008 5:43 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

and MB3's first reaction

was to ask if the throat was still ok, lol.

by scottmaui on Jul 24, 2008 6:05 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

And I thank him for my signature

Classic!

"So you can’t stiff arm at all? What about the throat?"- Marion "Barbarian" Barber

by DC_fan on Jul 26, 2008 7:35 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

question

Is it punching the face mask or grabbing the face mask when it comes to offensive of players?

"If you see me up in the mountains with a lion, I ain't lyin
don't help me, help the mountain lion"

by Wmillion on Jul 24, 2008 6:29 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

as I understand it

it basically means the receiver has to come down with both feet in bounds regardless of what the DB does, so yes, the DB could just push them as hard as they can to try to force them out before they come down with it. The good thing is it removes the subjective nature of trying to call a pushed out of bounds play. Either you get your feet in or you don’t. But it will make it harder on receivers to work the sidelines, and they’ll have to give themselves a little extra room to make sure they can come down with it in bounds.

As it is the number of plays that get called pushed out of bounds is so few anyway. I guess it will encourage DBs to push more so it may affect more plays that just that, but overall I don’t see it having a huge impact on the game. I kind of thought for a long time that they should have done it this way, just because it has been so subjective. PI is always going to be subjective, but if you can get a real objective measure instead of a subjective one, I think that’s better in general.

by scottmaui on Jul 24, 2008 6:11 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

yes sir

I like it, keep it simple.

"If you see me up in the mountains with a lion, I ain't lyin
don't help me, help the mountain lion"

by Wmillion on Jul 24, 2008 6:32 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Will be interesting

I agree with scottmaui that any time you can remove subjectivity with an objecitve measurement, it’s a good thing. I would love to see that with pass interference. However, I think this season will provide a number of receptions that would have been inbounds under the old rule but are out of bounds this season. If one of them is a game-turning play, and I predict that we will see at least one of them, the new rule will produce ample basis for debate.

by rrb on Jul 25, 2008 7:57 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

lol

i can just see it now, reggie bush leaps to catch a swing pass out of the backfield around the hashmark, and D Ware catches him in mid air and proceeds to carry him, kicking and screaming off the field – out of bounds! :)

by Scoobay on Jul 25, 2008 8:36 AM CDT reply reply 1 recs

According to some talking head on TV

The player will be called in-bounds if the defensive player carries them out of bounds. I don’t think it would really be that easy to carry a NFL player against his will, but apparently there is an exception to the rule in that instance.

That said, I haven’t seen the words in the rule itself, just taking what I heard on TV as true.

by grapejoos on Jul 25, 2008 11:04 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

that's a funny image

i supposed by the time you carried them out of bounds, it would be kind of like forward progress anyway…

by scottmaui on Jul 25, 2008 11:58 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

It's pretty rare, anyway.

I watch a lot of football since I have the DirecTV package, and I don’t recall seeing the force out rule come into play very often before last year. Then, there were 3 big plays involving it, and 2 happened to go in the receiver’s favor. Usually, when the ref did have to make a judgment call, they almost always called the receiver out. But on the few times they didn’t, such a stink was made that they changed the rule.

Between the bogus offsides calls against Ware, having to change where officials line up because they weren’t calling holding, and this suddenly being an issue, I think the problem is more bad officiating than anything else. They need to get their officials together and make sure they are all calling things the same way and understand the rules. I hope that they do yearly testing and reviews, as well as classwork. I know that I have to do continuing education for my job, so these guys should be in the class room and in camp during the offseason just like the players. They don’t need to keep changing the rules, just have uniform enforcement of the ones you have.

by Baked Potato Soup on Jul 25, 2008 11:49 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

they have a grading system

on NFLTA’s “Official Review” segment with the VP of officiating during the playoffs last year, Mike Pereira talked about how they they go back and review all the calls and non-calls, and showed a chart noting when the official got it wrong, either way (including not making a call when they should have). So officials get regular feedback on what they do wrong and they are graded like a job evaluation which determines for example if they get to officiate in playoff games. So they really do try to make an effort to enforce consistency.

But with something like pushing out of bounds, no matter how much they try to be uniform, there is still a more subjective element than just whether he got his feet in or not.

by scottmaui on Jul 25, 2008 12:08 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs