Officiating video: 2-point conversions, safety kick recovery, fumble reviews, and the catch process

Senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron released the week nine officiating video today. (video below)

Two-point conversion try

In he covered the two-point conversion play from the Patriots/Bills Monday Night Football game where quarterback Tom Brady had his conversion pass intercepted inside the end zone. The defender fumbled inside the end zone as he was trying to return it out and it was recovered by the defense. Even though the two-point try occurred with just under 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the fumble and recovery automatically reverts to the fumble inside two minutes scenario where a recovery by the possession team is automatically a dead ball.

One interesting aspect of the play that we covered at greater length this week in a video post was that if the defender had crossed the goal line into the field of play but fumbled it back into the end zone, it would have been the extremely rare one-point safety play where the offense, if the defense recovers, is awarded one point instead of two. If the ball had gone out of the end zone after the defender crossed the goal line into the field of play, it would have also been a one point safety.

Safety and failed recovery of a safety kick

After a safety in the Browns/Steelers game, on the ensuing free safety kick, the Steelers kick returner failed to take possession of the ball and it was recovered by the Browns inside the 25 yard line of the Steelers. A free kick after a safety is considered a live ball and therefore recoverable by the kicking team if no one on the opposing team touches it. The Browns cannot advance the kick and can only do so if the Steelers had possession first. Ball is declared dead immediately when the kicking team recovers.

Fumble recovery by a player out of bounds

In the Cardinals/49ers game, an Arizona player fumbled the ball along the sideline and a 49ers player appeared to have touched while he was out of bounds trying to recover it. Initially, the ruling was that a 49ers player touched the ball while out of bounds, and gave the ball back to the Cardinals at the spot of the fumble. After review, replay ruled that the 49ers defender never touched the ball out of bounds and they got to keep the fumble recovery.

Catch process

A Jared Goff pass to Todd Gurley down the sideline came under review late in the 2nd half of the Rams/Packers game. Gurley grabbed possession and appeared toe drag his 2nd foot before he went out of bounds. In this case, he met all three elements: possession, two feet, and an “act common to the game” by running out of bounds.

Look at plays from last week with SVP of Officiating, Al Riveron: pic.twitter.com/KLL1FJvCfz

— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) November 2, 2018