If penalties for fouls during a completed forward pass play would have the end of the run as the basic spot, this would make pass interference penalties weird.
1/10 A-20. A11 throws a legal forward pass towards A-50 where A99 and B98 are competing for the ball with B98 being in a good position to make an interception.
a) A99 pushes B98 in the back preventing B98 from catching the ball and catches the ball himself. A99 is downed at B-45.
b) A99 pushes B98 in the back preventing B98 from catching the ball. The pass falls to the ground incomplete.
Would it be a fair result in a) to have A 1/10 A-35? I think not, so at least OPI should still be a previous spot enforcement. I think this would be more complicated than it currently is with no major benefits.
Kalle, I’m only talking about Basic Spot/3 & 1 enforcement fouls. As you know, DPI and OPI have specific enforcements, by rule, and are not dependent upon any other action. So, in your examples, the OPI foul would still be enforced at the previous spot.
Honestly, I can’t envision a Team A contact foul beyond the NZ during a legal forward pass play that we wouldn’t classify as OPI. That was why I raised that as the second part of this discussion. But, if Shaw were to say that, for example, a BBW foul beyond the NZ in the left side zone during a pass play that is completed in the right side zone should NOT be treated as OPI, but strictly as BBW, I can’t see how that is different than the same BBW foul during a running play. During a running play, if the foul occurs well beyond the end of the run, it is still a foul, even though it probably didn’t help the team in possession gain any yards. So, penalizing from the end of the run is fair. But, the same thing during a pass play would go back to the previous spot to be penalized. (But, like I said, I can’t imagine a Team A contact foul beyond the NZ during a legal forward pass play that crosses the NZ that we wouldn’t consider OPI.)
This is just, what I think, is a quirk in the rules that creates an unfair situation for Team A, but ONLY if we can consider contact fouls by Team A beyond the NZ during a legal forward pass play that crosses the NZ to NOT be OPI. So, when this scenario was presented on a quiz, with the answer as being a non-OPI foul that is penalized at the previous spot, it first made me wonder “how is this not OPI?” Then it made me realize, if this is going to be treated as a Basic Spot enforcement, Team A gets treated differently than if this had been a running play. Why?
Like I said, just an academic discussion, because I can’t really see such a foul happening that we wouldn’t consider OPI.
Mostly, I didn’t like seeing no activity on this site for several days, and just wanted to wake everybody up.
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