General Sport Discussion (non-AFL)
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royboy2
Average Old Bastard
- Dec 7, 2007
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Its from years ago, which I only saw earlier, but I must admit, I don't know why there isn't more of this in gridiron where the ball is passed around more often.
MSB ROYS
Brownlow Medallist
Especially on 3rd down. On 1st and 2nd down the risk of a turnover greatly out outweighs any benefits.
MSB ROYS
Brownlow Medallist
I think I watching a game a week or so ago and they said that there were 4 laterals this year (other than last play if the game), 2 of which were done by Kelsey. The best teams are going for it more on 4th down, so the lateral will probably be next.
- Mar 12, 2003
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I think on any down the risk of a turnover is too great. Even if you're forced to punt it away on 4th down, yes you're giving away possession but you're also gaining good territory. The high risk of a lateral gone wrong, even on 3rd or 4th down is you lose the ball in the wrong part of the field.
You're also giving your defense less of a break by losing possession too early in your drive.
And if you try for a lateral in your attacking half, particularly if you're already in field goal range (basically anywhere forward of the 40 yard line), the risk of giving up almost certain points just doesn't make it worthwhile, except in those rare situations where time has expired, or you need a touchdown to win in the dying seconds etc.
The other thing those of us who are familiar with the rugby codes need to understand is that a "lateral" pass in American football is not the same as a "backwards" pass in rugby! A rugby pass only needs to travel backwards relative to the person throwing the ball. An American football pass must not travel towards the opposition's goal line. We saw a "lateral" pass for a touchdown get pulled up for this very thing a couple of weeks ago
That pass is absolutely fine in either rugby code, but is a clear forward pass in American football and correctly picked up.
So that threshold of what constitutes a "legal" lateral pass in American football is higher than it is in rugby.
That said, I reckon there are more lateral passes thrown in college football than in the NFL. They seem to get up to more random stuff, perhaps because the defenses aren't quite as good.
By the way, in case you're wondering what the penalty would be for that illegal forward pass in that NFL video above, it's actually not really that big a penalty at all. The quarterback had already covered enough ground to pick up a 1st down, so a 5 yard penalty is enforced at the spot the illegal pass is thrown, still giving Denver good field position (on the 37 yard line) with around 55 seconds and 1 time out left in the half, which they didn't end up using anyway
