Rules review video: Horse-collar tackles, dead-ball fouls, and pre-snap movement

2024 Media Video #4

National coordinator of football officials Steve Shaw posted his weekly video breaking down rules and interpretations from week 3 of the college football season.

With the new kickoff rules in the NFL this season, Shaw shared some positive statistics of the college football kickoffs. The injury rate of kickoffs is lower than that of a normal play from scrimmage. The overall return rate of kicks is 30% and there have already been 7 kicks returned for TDs.

• Horse collar tackle in the pocket. The quarterback drops back to pass and is dragged to the grown by the nameplate of his jersey as he throws an interception. Prior to this season, a horse-collar foul could not be called on a passer in the pocket; however, the rule changed this season, and this foul can be called anywhere on the field. Shaw cited player safety as the reason for this rule change. Because the foul occurred before the change of possession, the interception is negated by the penalty.
• Dead-ball foul. On a 4th & 1 play inside the opposing 5, the offense executes a legal QB sneak and picks up the first down. There was an unsportsmanlike conduct foul on the offense that occurred after the play was blown dead for pulling an opposing player off of the pile. This 15-yard foul was enforced as a dead-ball foul, meaning before the chains are set, and not between-downs which affects the distance for a first down. Because the dead-ball spot was inside the 10, it is not a goal-to-go situation, but it’s 1st & 10.
• Receiver out of bounds. The receiver was forced out of bounds on his route by the defender, but came back in and caught the pass for a touchdown. The rule states that if a receiver goes out of bounds, he cannot be the first one to touch the ball unless he was forced out by a defender and re-establishes in the field of play. Though the receiver got his knee down in bounds after catching the ball, he never re-established in bounds prior to touching it. Therefore, replay overturned this play to an incomplete pass.
• Pre-snap actions. Shaw talks about two different situations in the same game about a point of emphasis this season. In the first instance, the defensive line has a planned coordinated shift to try and get the offense to false start. While they are successful, they are flagged for delay of game due to the defensive end pumping his arms like the ball was snapped and he was going to rush. Later in the game, they do another shift, but this time with no moves or actions that were done to make the offensive line think the ball was snapped other than shifting over. This time when there was movement on the offensive line, a false start was called.
• Intentional grounding. The quarterback gets the snap and throws a backwards pass to a teammate. This pass is dropped, and then subsequently picked up and thrown away out of bounds. This was flagged for intentional grounding, as there was no receiver in the area. The exceptions for throwing it beyond the line of scrimmage and being outside the pocket only apply to the player who directly receives the snap.
• Blocking below the waist. On a run play, the linebacker dives and blocks the lead blocker at his knees. The defenders who are within one yard of the line of scrimmage are allowed to hit the offensive lineman below the waist on their initial charge after the snap. Other than this specific instance, no one is allowed to block below the waist. Since this defender was not on the line of scrimmage and the blocker was downfield, this was flagged for an illegal block below the waist, and could be enforced on the kickoff, point-after attempt, two-point attempt, or even in overtime if this play was the last play as time expired.