Dak Prescott found a safety loophole for NFL’s most bizarre play of the week

Who watched Sunday's game? Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboysyou probably had some head-scratching moments in the second quarter, if so, know that you are not alone, because I was in the same situation as you.

The play in question came with just under nine minutes left in the second quarter, with Dak Prescott's Cowboys cornered in their own half, on third down and 10 and already trailing 14-3. This was a critical moment early in the game, and a mistake here could have given the Ravens incredible field position, or even a 21-3 lead.

New Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr would go with seven in coverage, but with an inside twist between Travis Jones and Kyle Van Noy. This design would allow Van Noy to run freely on the quarterback, and the added pressure from Odafe Oweh and Nnamdi Madubuike on the edge (Madubuike got to Prescott first) would put the quarterback in trouble.

At the time, Prescott desperately evaded a safety and managed to complete a pass before crashing to the turf.

To offensive lineman Tyler Smith:

The flag was soon raised and Kevin Burkhart FOX Sports They suggested the play was an intentional grounder by Prescott and brought in rules analyst Mike Pereira to analyze it. FOX Sports Rules experts support Burkhart's position, saying:[i]If there are no eligible receivers in that area, the touch may be disregarded and converted into an intentional grounding.”

You can see part of that discussion here:

If the ball had been ruled an intentional grounding, it would have been a safety because it was thrown from the end zone, Dallas would have been up 16-3 and the next play would have been a free kick to the Ravens.

Instead, the play was ruled an illegal touch by Smith, resulting in a five-yard penalty, which Baltimore declined to take, and the Cowboys punted on fourth down.

But…why did I get this call?

To the NFL rulebook!

The two rules that apply here are Section 1, Article 8Illegal touching of a forward pass, and Section 2: Intentional GroundingLet's start with the intentional grounding rule, which goes like this:

An intentional grounding foul occurs when a forward pass is thrown when a loss of yards is imminent due to defensive pressure and there is no realistic likelihood of completion, defined as a pass that is thrown in the direction of and lands in the vicinity of an originally eligible offensive receiver.

At first glance, this seems like a classic example of intentional grounding. There is a clause in the rules that allows the penalty to be waived if the quarterback begins the throwing motion and the impact of a defensive player affects the pass (item 2: physical contact), but in this case the order is wrong. This does not seem to be the case, as Prescott was hit first and then began to throw.

Some wondered if Hunter Luebke being within Prescott's line of sight would have made any difference, and you can see that here.

But it seems like Prescott and the Cowboys may have found a way to get around the safety here, thanks to another aspect of the intentional grounding rule.

The ground itself.

Let's take a moment to consider the rules regarding illegal contact. Here are some of them:

A forward pass (legal or illegal) thrown from behind the line of scrimmage is a foul for illegal touching if (a) it is first intentionally touched or caught by an offensive player who was originally ineligible. When such a pass is caught, it is a live ball.

This rule carries a five-yard penalty from the previous spot and, perhaps significantly, does not include provisions for throws from the end zone, although the intentional grounding rule does.

Because Smith caught the ball, the illegal touching rule was called instead of the intentional grounding rule. Because Smith caught the ball, it was technically a live ball and could have theoretically been a fumble, but an illegal touching penalty was assessed.

If the guard hadn't caught it, or if the ball had deflected off the guard and been incomplete, there would have been an argument for intentional grounding, which would have sparked a debate about whether Prescott's throw had a realistic chance of being caught by Ruepke.

So, essentially, there is no grounding as the ball never hits the ground.

That is the idea presented here. In this work Football Zebras The group asked the former umpire for an explanation, but he said, “You can't be on the field after catching the pass.”

If you're still confused, remember that you're not alone.

Van Noy agrees with you:

That could be something the NFL's competition committee considers this offseason.