Rules Question

So I am watching our last game of 2 seasons ago and our guys do a false start. We are already at the Seattle 8 yd line and they said that False Start 5 yd penalty and repeat the down. That put us at the 3 yd line. Should that be half the distance to the goal line? Am I missing something? Ya that game kinda sucked a bit too as they missed calls on both sides of the ball too. Thanks for the assistance.

Editted for position on the field.

Half the distance only applies when you are close to the opponent's goal line IIRC. I may be wrong.

Pretty sure it should have been half the distance to the goal and placed at the 4.

Wasn't sure what "last" game you were talking about, so I went back to the play by play boxscores of both the Cards and Panthers games of 2015, and don't see any series where were were on our 8 and got a false start penalty.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201601170 ... playbyplay

Sgt. Largent":2lk1wayb said:

Wasn't sure what "last" game you were talking about, so I went back to the play by play boxscores of both the Cards and Panthers games of 2015, and don't see any series where were were on our 8 and got a false start penalty.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201601170 ... playbyplay

Click to expand...

My bad. Second to the last game against the Rams in the Carolina winner season until they lost the Sooperbowl. That would be the 2015 season. They beat us by 2 scores that game.

False starts and offsides have always been 5 yard penalties. Unless they are within 5 yards of the endzone, then the half the distance to the goal applies. In the OP's example, 5 yards is correct call since the ball was at 8 yard line. If it had been at 4 yard line then the penalty would have taken it to the 2.

hawkfan68":12wunqic said:

False starts and offsides have always been 5 yard penalties. Unless they are within 5 yards of the endzone, then the half the distance to the goal applies. In the OP's example, 5 yards is correct call since the ball was at 8 yard line. If it had been at 4 yard line then the penalty would have taken it to the 2.

Click to expand...

This I never heard befor

So on the 6 yard line it goes to the one and on the five yard line it would go to the two yard line?.....

mikeak":1yg0rbin said:

hawkfan68":1yg0rbin said:

False starts and offsides have always been 5 yard penalties. Unless they are within 5 yards of the endzone, then the half the distance to the goal applies. In the OP's example, 5 yards is correct call since the ball was at 8 yard line. If it had been at 4 yard line then the penalty would have taken it to the 2.

Click to expand...

This I never heard befor

So on the 6 yard line it goes to the one and on the five yard line it would go to the two yard line?.....

Click to expand...

That's the way I understood it to be.

http://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2016-nfl-rulebook/#article-1.-half-distance-penalty

Edit: According to the link..it states that if a distance penalty would take the spot over half the yardage to goal, then the penalty would be half the distance to goal. So within 10 yard line, it seems all the penalties would be half the distance to goal rather than regular 5 yards for offside or false start.

Seahawkfan80":2h5iezf4 said:

Sgt. Largent":2h5iezf4 said:

Wasn't sure what "last" game you were talking about, so I went back to the play by play boxscores of both the Cards and Panthers games of 2015, and don't see any series where were were on our 8 and got a false start penalty.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201601170 ... playbyplay

Click to expand...

My bad. Second to the last game against the Rams in the Carolina winner season until they lost the Sooperbowl. That would be the 2015 season. They beat us by 2 scores that game.

Click to expand...

Here's the play by play boxscore.

First series says we were at our own 7, not 8.........and the false start penalty on Bailey moves the ball half the distance to the goal to the 4, not the 3.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201512271 ... playbyplay

So nothing more to see here.

Sgt. Largent":2npbdjhq said:

Seahawkfan80":2npbdjhq said:

Sgt. Largent":2npbdjhq said:

Wasn't sure what "last" game you were talking about, so I went back to the play by play boxscores of both the Cards and Panthers games of 2015, and don't see any series where were were on our 8 and got a false start penalty.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201601170 ... playbyplay

Click to expand...

My bad. Second to the last game against the Rams in the Carolina winner season until they lost the Sooperbowl. That would be the 2015 season. They beat us by 2 scores that game.

Click to expand...

Here's the play by play boxscore.

First series says we were at our own 7, not 8.........and the false start penalty on Bailey moves the ball half the distance to the goal to the 4, not the 3.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201512271 ... playbyplay

So nothing more to see here.

Click to expand...

Cool. The ref just made a mistake in saying what he said. He said 5 yd penalty, whatever down it was. Thanks Sgt.