Something I have never understood

I have been a football fan for 36 years. Have always loved the game and have taken the technical look at the game from a coaching standpoint ever since destroying my ankle in high school and could no longer play. There is an aspect to this game that I have never gotten and I was wondering if maybe someone here could explain it to me.

You often see players on sweeps or reverses who are strung out by the defense with no where to go. They have a couple of seconds before they are actually tackled but none of them ever actually throw the ball out of bounds to avoid the loss of yardage. They are obviously outside the tackle box and as long as they are getting the ball passed the line of scrimmage, there wouldn't be a penalty. So, why aren't coaches teaching their running backs and receivers who run the sweep or reverse to throw the ball away?

Well, they could . . . I have actually seen this happen once in a HS game, but the receiver was hit while he was trying to throw it away, causing a fumble. It was recovered by his own QB, so no turnover. However, you could see the receiver getting chewed out by one of his coaches on the sideline after the play.

Even though it is the logical thing to do when executed properly, we probably don't see this too often because it's actually very challenging to correctly throw a ball out of bounds (passed the line of scrimmage to avoid intentional grounding). It's especially challenging for non-QBs who are not accustomed to throwing the ball when they are in the imminent process of being tackled. Most coaches would rather take the loss than risk a turnover.

It's the same reason most coach linemen just to fall on a fumbled football rather than try to pick it up and advance it. Most linemen aren't accustomed to running with ball security.

Haha, interesting concept.

I think one reason why not to throw the ball is because an RB will never be able to break a tackle if he doesn't try (Lynch would be an average back if he did this, lol). You would be messing with an RB's primary instinct to always find holes and make something happen. The loss of yardage would rarely be a big deal in the grand scheme of things unless it would be 5+.

Another reason which might be more important is now you take away the ball control element of running the clock out. RBs rarely ever go out of bounds in near loss of yardage situations.

As you know there are times when taking sacks for a QB are advantageous (i.e. clock killing in the red zone).

Because it would likely be a 5 yard penalty for illegal man down field. How many called running plays don't have a lineman more than a yard down the field? It's the first thing a ref would look for. Unless they were on the Philly crew.

BTW, I think the reason Carpenter didn't get called was he ran so far down the field it looked like a route. Seriously. if he had run 3 or 4 yards down the field he would have been right where they look on a scramble play to see if anyone is down the field. He was 15 yards past that.

Scottemojo":a0es5bg2 said:

Because it would likely be a 5 yard penalty for illegal man down field. How many called running plays don't have a lineman more than a yard down the field? It's the first thing a ref would look for. Unless they were on the Philly crew.

BTW, I think the reason Carpenter didn't get called was he ran so far down the field it looked like a route. Seriously. if he had run 3 or 4 yards down the field he would have been right where they look on a scramble play to see if anyone is down the field. He was 15 yards past that.

Click to expand...

Someone on a Field Gulls said that it was likely the refs didn't even see the penalty because they were not in position due to the tempo of the Eagles offense. I haven't had a chance to watch the replay yet so I don't know. But it makes sense if true.

entropyrulesall":15594dgv said:

Scottemojo":15594dgv said:

Because it would likely be a 5 yard penalty for illegal man down field. How many called running plays don't have a lineman more than a yard down the field? It's the first thing a ref would look for. Unless they were on the Philly crew.

BTW, I think the reason Carpenter didn't get called was he ran so far down the field it looked like a route. Seriously. if he had run 3 or 4 yards down the field he would have been right where they look on a scramble play to see if anyone is down the field. He was 15 yards past that.

Click to expand...

Someone on a Field Gulls said that it was likely the refs didn't even see the penalty because they were not in position due to the tempo of the Eagles offense. I haven't had a chance to watch the replay yet so I don't know. But it makes sense if true.

Click to expand...

What does the tempo of the Eagles offense have to do with the Seahawks offense?

I think it depends on the direction of the sweep and also which hand the WR carries and throws with. A left-handed WR coming to the LT side has the ball already protected in his outside arm/carrying hand and he won't have to throw across his body to get it OOB. Running the other direction or trying to switch hands to throw could result in a fumble (like Russ trying to switch while simply running down the field against SF or whoever it was recently.) RB's do it regularly with ease but I've seen WR's have slightly more trouble with it on average.

Erebus":1pg6l2yu said:

entropyrulesall":1pg6l2yu said:

Scottemojo":1pg6l2yu said:

Because it would likely be a 5 yard penalty for illegal man down field. How many called running plays don't have a lineman more than a yard down the field? It's the first thing a ref would look for. Unless they were on the Philly crew.

BTW, I think the reason Carpenter didn't get called was he ran so far down the field it looked like a route. Seriously. if he had run 3 or 4 yards down the field he would have been right where they look on a scramble play to see if anyone is down the field. He was 15 yards past that.

Click to expand...

Someone on a Field Gulls said that it was likely the refs didn't even see the penalty because they were not in position due to the tempo of the Eagles offense. I haven't had a chance to watch the replay yet so I don't know. But it makes sense if true.

Click to expand...

What does the tempo of the Eagles offense have to do with the Seahawks offense?

Click to expand...

It was a concept well expressed all game long. The officials had to slow down the Philly offense in order to be in position. Not sure I entirely agree but, come on.

Lol (for real) I see what you did there.