Buffalo: What Did We Learn?

Undone said:
But of course, the QB can intentionally put a little backwards motion into the pitch to cancel this out so that it truly does not go forward.

I feel like a nerd typing this out. I think it was Mavric who mentioned he was looking it up in the rule book to see whether this was accounted for - which if it is, then ignore everything I'm saying.    :)

I'm just pretty sure though that according to the rule book, there is no distinction between a "pitch," a "a lateral," and a "forward pass" as it pertains to whether or not the ball goes forward for whatever reason. If the ball goes forward and the person committing this action is past the line of scrimmage, it's an illegal forward pass.
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Edited my note, because the article posted above with NDT's quote isn't entirely correct.

Rule 3, Section 22, Article 4:
"It is a forward pass if:

a. the ball initially moves forward (to a point nearer the opponent's goal line) after leaving the passer's hand(s);"
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BUT..... In the rulebook, it further stipulates:
 

A.R. 3.15 The ball, moving backwards in the hands of an offensive player A1, is possessed by offensive player A2 who is in advance of A1. Ruling: Illegal forward handing unless A2 is behind his line and is eligible to receive a forward pass.
A.R. 3.16 The ball moving forward in the hands of offensive player A1, is possessed by A2 who is behind A1. Ruling: A backward pass.
http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/6_Rule3_Definitions.pdf
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Because he's moving it to someone behind him in space, it's backwards.
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Saunders said:
Edited my note, because the article posted above with NDT's quote isn't entirely correct.

BUT..... In the rulebook, it further stipulates:
 

Because he's moving it to someone behind him in space, it's backwards.
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First, I don't think that's talking about a pitch. Second, that is referencing the NFL.

I thought there was some wording about "initial direction" or something like that.  But I can't find it in the NCAA rule book.  All it talks about is the point where it was thrown and the point where it was caught.  Unless there are exceptions I'm not seeing.

 
Mavric said:
Word is the B1G got back to Nebraska on the plays they submitted and told them that the OPI should not have been called and the illegal forward pass also should not have been called and let replay look at it to see if there was an issue.
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I’ve seen this tweeted by fans but I haven’t seen any confirmation by those who actually work for HOL

 
Saunders said:
Because he's moving it to someone behind him in space, it's backwards.
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Nice! I really didn't know that at all. Been watching Husker football/option football my whole life and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever really investigated the rule.

*Edit: Just saw Mavric's post indicating that this might only apply in the NFL. The more I think about it, I kind of doubt you can throw the ball forward as long as the guy catching it was behind where you threw it (or still behind where you are now) when he catches it.

 
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krc1995 said:
That’s nice, but what good does it do? 
maybe educate the officiating crew? 
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For one the crew could get suspended or fired. 
 

I know this outcome may not be in our favor scoreboard wise but it could benefit future schools from having this officiating crew officiate their future B1G games. I don’t want to see that crew in future games 

Mavric said:
It was in their Tunnel Talk this morning.
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Thanks Mavric

 
Apathy said:
For one the crew could get suspended or fired. 
 

I know this outcome may not be in our favor scoreboard wise but it could benefit future schools from having this officiating crew officiate their future B1G games. I don’t want to see that crew in future games 
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I imagine these are just distributed to the officials as things that were missed and like a "make sure we get these right!" It would take a lot of bad calls to get officials suspended, and they're pretty much unfireable. At some point if a specific coach and official butt heads they might do something, but frankly a fair amount of the crews wouldn't be able to officiate most big ten teams if it just took a coach requesting they not officiate his games.

I'm really curious what actually comes out of the officials prep. I know they review the teams and both coaches have an opportunity to clarify things, let them know about any potential trick plays, and request extra attention on certain things (#57 holds every play!), I just don't know how much of that gets used. The PI certainly feels like they were told to look for rub routes and were prepared to throw the flag on any crossing route contact. And if I'm an opposing coach I would totally call that out - We run a lot of Mesh, and intentional or not the traffic created is a key part of the play. 

 
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