Gator roll

[Vancer]

I had this in a game last week and I can honestly say that I've never seen it before.  At the snap the guards and tackles would go to the ground and do a gator death roll.  When I questioned the players they basically said that this is how they were taught to slow up the defense.  Other than the public humiliation of such poor blocking technique do you have a penalty?

[sir55]

If they are on the LOS and in the FBZ, the ball is still in the FBZ, and the players they contact are D lineman in the FBZ, no foul. If another lineman hits the D player high at the same time, chop block. If the ball leaves the FBZ, block below the waist.

[ncwingman]

One could argue that the gator roll is not an attempt to block, so any contact would be incidental and not an illegal block. If A66 is engaged with B99, and B99 effectively knocks him over into the legs of B97, A66 did not commit an illegal low block since he was not attempting to block B97 (he was attempting, and failing, to block B99).

One could likely more successfully argue that since the linemen are intentionally rolling and their actions are not the result of "football moves", they would be responsible for not "accidentally" blocking defenders low.

If they are trying to be a distraction and the B players can (and do) avoid contact, then I have no penalty.