9-1-9 Roughing the Passer

[ajv]

Military Bowl. 11:16 2nd quarter. Shot gun snap. QB A5 is in a passing posture. B4 rushes in, jumps and as his arm swings down to block or discourage a pass he contacts A5 forcibly in the head - then as he passes him the contact pulls the head back (did he grasp the opening?). But A5 has not thrown a pass - he ducks under B4, scrambles and then throws an incomplete legal pass. The call was Roughing the Passer.

There are a few personal fouls that you could call depending on the contact (facemask, targeting with ejection) and we'll end up at the same down & distance as roughing in this case - but can this be a Roughing the Passer foul?

My reading of the 9-1-9 Roughing the Passer fouls are that they are either under 9-1-9a with the proviso "... when it is obvious the ball has been thrown." or under 9-1-9b "... forcibly at the knee area or below.".

In this play the pass had not been thrown and the contact was not to the knees or below.

If it is a facemask or striking the helmet or targeting - then it's a personal foul. However, it looked to me that the contact here was more of the type described in 9-1-9a-2 (contact to the head of neck area not meeting the requirements of 9-1-4). But if the pass had not been thrown do we have anything?

[theunofficialofficial]

I am guessing that this was under 9-1-9a5 where the action was a PF Face Mask foul which then converts to RTP:

5. Any action that is a personal foul as described elsewhere in this section.

[ElvisLives]

No, this is not roughing the passer, by description, but is a personal foul for under 9-1-2, striking.  The penalty enforcement is essentially the same, since this penalty can be added to the end of the play (if a legal forward pass that crosses the NZ), enforced at the end of the run (if beyond the NZ), or enforced at the previous spot.
By your description, the call was righteous, but the announcement may have been inaccurate.  Tomato/Tomahto.  But yes, we should make correct announcements.

Robert

[TXMike]

Here is the video.   https://youtu.be/X4ztPFgRrEM
 They opened the door to this when they made the low hits roughing the passer even if ball not thrown.   Since then I have seen similar high hits like this called roughing the passer even if ball not thrown.