Botched Fair Catch

[MplsHammer]

Thinking back on the start final, pivotal drive in regulation I got to thinking. Upon reciept of the punt, Troy Stoudemire calls fair catch on the 25 yard line and the ball ends up bouncing back towards him and the goal line. Considering that there were defenders in the area to down the ball close to the goal line, catching it off the bounce was probably the correct play (tho, catching it would have been optimal). Sure, we take the penalty but we still started the drive on the 15 yard line. If he lets it go, that ball is easily downed inside the 5 and we're staring a likely 3 and out in the face. If that happened, we're looking at a very restricted and predictable playbook. Knowing us, we'd run it twice and throw an incomplete pass into heavy coverage. By taking the penalty, we're starting at the 15 and Weber is in the shotgun. Very different ballgame.

 

[jmag21]

As I understand it, the penalty wasn't for catching the punt on the bounce, but for then running with it after signaling for a fair catch.

 

[monk10]

The penalty, I believe, was running after he caught (Delay of Game). If he would have grabbed it and not moved, then there would have been no penalty.

 

[Gopher07]

Yeah, I wanted to jump through my TV when he started running with it. Gotta have better focus than that.

 

[Curseislifted33]

i like your thinking, i never thought of it that his lapse of thought might have actually been a good thing!

 

[tjgopher]

i like your thinking, i never thought of it that his lapse of thought might have actually been a good thing!

It WASN'T a good thing. If he just catches it on the bounce and stands there, we get the ball right there. No penalty. Instead, he runs with it, thus the penalty.

 

[highwayman]

Thinking back on the start final, pivotal drive in regulation I got to thinking. Upon reciept of the punt, Troy Stoudemire calls fair catch on the 25 yard line and the ball ends up bouncing back towards him and the goal line. Considering that there were defenders in the area to down the ball close to the goal line, catching it off the bounce was probably the correct play (tho, catching it would have been optimal). Sure, we take the penalty but we still started the drive on the 15 yard line. If he lets it go, that ball is easily downed inside the 5 and we're staring a likely 3 and out in the face. If that happened, we're looking at a very restricted and predictable playbook. Knowing us, we'd run it twice and throw an incomplete pass into heavy coverage. By taking the penalty, we're starting at the 15 and Weber is in the shotgun. Very different ballgame.

It's only a 5 yard penalty. He must have caught it on the 17, drive started at 12.

 

[cduff]

When I watched it, my instinct was that he should be running too. There was just something different about it, you don't see many times where someone calls a fair catch, and then catches the ball after a bounce.

 

[Curseislifted33]

It WASN'T a good thing. If he just catches it on the bounce and stands there, we get the ball right there. No penalty. Instead, he runs with it, thus the penalty.

but if he doesn't catch it, the ball rolls deeper into our zone. I agree He should have just caught it and stood still, but the penalty was still better than letting it roll deep into our own territory.

 

[MNSpaniel]

crossing arms to cancel

You can't do this but he must have thought that he could. He fair caught the ball but then he must have thought he could return it so he crossed his hands back and forth like he was canceling the fair catch. Then he took off running.

 

[monk10]

Crossing arms is a universal sign for everyone to get away. The ball happened to boune to him and his instict was to run.