Make sure you add “landing zone violation” to your NFL vocabulary.
The Giants and Lions got their first taste of the NFL’s wacky new “dynamic kickoff” rule in their preseason opener on Thursday, but it only took two opportunities for things to get messy.
Lions kicker Jake Bates made a slick play with a two-hopping pass to the returner. It looked like a brilliant strategy at first glance, as the bouncing ball came loose and Isaiah McKenzie was tackled at the Giants’ 2-yard line.
The only problem?
Bates was penalized for a landing zone violation.
Among the new rules is that the ball must be kicked between the 20-yard line and the goal line.
If, as in this case, the ball touches the ground 20 yards short, the receiving team will have the ball on the 40-yard line, so the field position has changed by 38 yards.
The new rule, borrowed from the XFL, is intended to accomplish two things: increase the action on boring plays (the NFL had its highest kickoff touchback rate ever last season) and emphasize safety by eliminating the full-speed collisions that used to occur on running kickoffs.
Players from both teams line up five yards apart on the receiving team’s side of the field and may not move until the ball is on the ground or caught.
Bates’ theory was to give his team room to take a few extra steps downfield before gaining possession.
The Detroit Lions will face the New York Giants using new kickoff rules in the first half on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, at MetLife Stadium. NY Post
If the kickoff goes into the end zone in the air, the touchback will be taken to the 30-yard line.
If the ball bounces in the landing zone and rolls into the end zone, a touchback is awarded up to the 20-yard line as long as the ball is recovered and downed by the receiving team.
The first kickoff of the game went much smoother, with Bates’ kickoff being caught by McKenzie at the 3-yard line and returned 31 yards (before a 10-yard holding penalty against the Giants’ Isaiah Hodgins).
The Giants’ first kickoff also became the new standard operating procedure.
The ball was caught at the goal line and returned 28 yards.
If returner Isaiah Williams had wanted, he probably could have bounced the ball in the end zone, threaded it through the backline and gotten a touchback at the 30-yard line.
Understood?
