Welcome to Art of Officiating’s first “Weekly Dozen” video of 2025, comprising plays through August 30. These videos are from Colorado Springs games, so I’ll reference the Colorado 5-person mechanics manual and Colorado rules interpretations and modifications. Please consult your state’s mechanics manual and rules interpretations if I say something that doesn’t match what you do in your state.
1 – Let’s start with a few “this is what right looks like” videos. With a minute and eight seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, it’s fourth down and 1 yard to go from the B-33. The home team is ahead 28 to 14, and they are in a tight formation with all eleven players within a few yards of the football. At the snap, the Team B players crash down toward the middle of the line. The quarterback, A5, runs untouched off the right side of the formation and scores.
9 of the 22 players on the field separate from the pile at the B-32. That means 13 players, more than half of the players on the field, are in the pile. The head linesman gets on his horse to race down the sideline. The back judge is out of the picture as he moves toward Team B’s goal line. The umpire turns to visually follow eight players in his line of sight.
Now here’s the goodness in this play. Look at the line judge. He’s not running down the field looking across the field at the eight players. He’s looking at the pile. That’s his responsibility. When the ball goes away from a wing, that wing should focus on the players behind the ball.
We have two sets of eyes on the ball. The head linesman must watch the runner because he’s close to the sideline. The back judge has the goal line. The umpire is looking at the players behind the ball. I’d like to see him run instead of walking. The line judge and referee stay behind with the 13 players who initially created a pile at the B-32.
Now I realize, if the runner reverses field and heads toward the press box side of the field, that sideline and pylon will be uncovered. The line judge should take a quick glance at the runner to ensure he’s still headed down the right sideline. If he see’s the runner reverse field, he’ll have to abandon his post and leave the big pile to the referee.
Notice the head linesman punch in at the B-10. That’s the Colorado mechanic who indicates the runner did not step out of bounds on his way to the goal line. The back judge takes a quick glance at the head linesman before going up with the touchdown signal.
The line judge remains locked in on the pile well behind the ball. That’s eye discipline!
2 – Here’s another example of correct eye discipline by both wings. I watch a lot of Hudl video, and unfortunately during passing plays, I see a lot of wings look into the backfield at the quarterback and only shift their focus downfield when the quarterback releases the ball.
Five of the six eligible receivers are near the line of scrimmage. Three receivers are on the line judge’s side, so the strength of the formation is to his side. Therefore, the back judge has the two outside receivers on the line judge’s side, and the line judge has the inside receiver on his side. The head linesman has the two receivers on his side.
At the snap, the wings will look at the tackle on their side to read pass or run. The tackles retreat to pass block. This means the wings must immediately shift their focus to their passing play keys. Notice the keys are two yards down the field. There is no margin for the wings to stare into the backfield at the ball. If they do, they’ll miss action downfield. The referee and umpire will look at the linemen during a passing play.
Notice the umpire quickly moves to the line of scrimmage. It’s rare that he has so much room to move. That’s because all five receivers have run a go route.
Candidly, I’m very surprised this play had all five receivers run 20 yards downfield. Typically, when you have an empty backfield, the ball comes out quickly. You often have crossing routes with variable route depths. In this play, the receivers all raced straight downfield. The quarterback didn’t have a chance. It was five blockers against four rushers, and you can see the result.
Here’s the goodness. Notice the eyes of both wings. They are looking downfield at their passing play initial responsibilities. They’ve both moved 5 yards downfield to physically stay connected to their keys.
Now watch the line judge. He pauses to watch the players separate before moving back toward the forward progress spot. There is no reason for the wings to race back to the forward progress spot. The referee will mark forward progress after a sack.
3 – I’m sorry about the vertical smudge on the right side of the video, but I still wanted to use it as it has a few good teaching points. It doesn’t stand out, but this is actually a balanced formation. The tight end is on the line judge’s side, and the back is outside the left tackle, so he counts in determining the formation strength.
In this formation, the head linesman has the two receivers on his side, the back judge has the back on the line judge’s side, and the line judge has the tight end.
This becomes tricky when A4 goes in motion. The formation strength changes when A4 moves beyond the right tackle. In my opinion, even if the ball was snapped when A4 was behind the right guard, we still need to change passing play initial responsibilities.
The back judge now has to shift his focus from the line judge’s side of the field to the two outside receivers on the head linesman’s side. The head linesman picks up A4, the back in motion, and the line judge keeps the tight end on his side.
The quarterback runs to the far sideline. It’s hard to tell because the line judge is behind the smear on the screen, but it appears he may be looking at the scrambling quarterback instead of continuing to watch his key, A8, who is near the A-40. He doesn’t have zone responsibility because none of the eligible receivers have entered his coverage area, so I’d like to see him continue to focus on this initial responsibility. The back judge has probably picked up A8 in his sight picture.
I’d like to see the head linesman remain on the line of scrimmage. His key, A4, the player who went in motion, has moved no more than five yards downfield when the head linesman begins to move. Just stay on the line of scrimmage; there is no reason to move. In fact, by moving, the head linesman puts himself in the path of the scrambling quarterback.
The head linesman now has a tough job. He needs to watch his passing play keys, but he also needs to glance quickly at the quarterback to make sure he doesn’t get run over. Keep in mind, the QB is not yet the linesman’s responsibility. The referee has the QB until he passes the line of scrimmage. But the linesman may soon pick up the quarterback if he crosses the line of scrimmage.
Notice the umpire has advanced to the line of scrimmage. By rule, both of the quarterback’s feet must be in or behind the neutral zone before he releases the ball. That’s Rule 7-5-1. The QB does release the ball before he crosses the neutral zone and A13 catches the ball for a first down.
4 – Here’s another tough assignment for the head linesman. Team K is in a scrimmage kick formation. During a scrimmage kick, the wings must watch their gunners all the way until the end of the kick. The line judge will release at the snap. The linesman must wait until the ball crosses the line of scrimmage before he can move, so he’s at about a 2 second disadvantage with his coverage.
When the ball clearly crosses the line of scrimmage, look how far away the linesman’s key has moved downfield. He’s now 15 yards downfield and running at top speed. The linesman must hustle downfield to try to get closer. But here’s the most important teaching point of this video. This player is the linesman’s key. No one else is watching him! So what happens next must be observed by the head linesman. It’s one of the toughest officiating assignments on the field with only five sets of eyeballs.
Is this a no-call, a hold, or a personal foul? The action is away from the ball, so some may decide it’s just a “talking to.” It’s a takedown in the open by R22, so I think it must be flagged as a foul. If we “ignore” this lift and slam, we take a credibility hit. In my judgment, because R22 lifted and slammed his opponent, R22 should be flagged for a personal foul.
The main teaching point is the head linesman must remain focused on his initial responsibility. The back judge can’t pick up that matchup. The umpire MAY be able to see it as he scans all the players that are downfield. In my judgment, this must be the head linesman’s flag.
5 – Here’s another scrimmage kick eye discipline video. The line judge begins to move downfield at the snap, but notice where he is looking. Wings should not look into the backfield on passing plays and scrimmage kick plays! You’re not the referee, so you don’t get to look into the backfield!
So R32 gets away with a takedown at the R47. I think when the line judge initially looks at the kicker, when he does shift his focus, he can’t see the beginning, middle, and end of this action.
The head linesman doesn’t even attempt to move. He just pivots and I’m not sure what he’s looking at.
Now lets look at the real problem here. The umpire should shift his gaze to the players who have passed him. The “biggins,” the larger players who rush the kicker, typically won’t present a problem during the initial few seconds after the kick crosses the line of scrimmage. It’s the faster players who have raced downfield that will foul. The referee will watch the players who are in front of him. So the umpire needs to pivot more quickly and shift his focus to the players who have run past him.
During scrimmage kicks, we need to look for colors that move against the flow. Someone needs to be looking at R11. This blindside block is unobserved. I’m not sure who the line judge is looking at, but he’s traveled only eight yards downfield during this play. We don’t get to walk on the field, we need to hustle. The ball is downed at the R-6, and the line judge is on the R-42. He needs to move down the field to watch the players behind the ball.
6 – Let’s first look at A63, the right tackle. Is he legally a lineman? Rule 2-32-9 says a lineman is any A player who is facing his opponent’s goal line with his head or foot breaking an imaginary plane drawn parallel to the line of scrimmage through the waist of the snapper when the ball is snapped.
A63 is obviously up to something. He’s either set up farther back to get a pass blocking advantage, or he’s preparing to pull to the opposite side of the line. One of our responsibilities as football officials is to ensure one team does not gain an illegal advantage over the other team within the rules. A63 has gained an illegal advantage by setting up so deep; not legally setting up as a lineman.
The line judge has two options. He can flag the formation (five players in the backfield) if he believes A63 has indeed gained an advantage by lining up in the backfield, or he can turn to the coaches on his sideline and “put money in the bank” by pointing out the formation problem.
Now let’s look at some eye discipline goodness. Instead of ball-watching, the line judge looks at players behind the ball. He watches A55’s personal foul on B54 and tosses his flag. Each official has an assigned coverage area. When the ball goes away from a wing, he must scan multiple players behind the ball for this very reason.
By the way, in my judgment, this is not a punch. We need to be careful not to immediately rule this a punch and eject A55. He strikes B54 in the face mask with a blow. I know it may seem like semantics, but I would counsel against being quick to toss players.
7 – This play is a middle screen. To properly judge a play’s legality, we must know rules book components. Rule 7-5-12 says ineligible A players may not advance beyond the expanded neutral zone on a legal forward pass play before a legal forward pass that crosses the neutral zone is in flight. Rule 2-28-2 defines the expanded neutral zone as two yards behind the defensive line of scrimmage. (Most of us think of the expanded neutral zone as two yards beyond the offensive line of scrimmage.)
We must take a visual snapshot of the location of the ineligible players when the pass is released, not when the ball arrives at the receiver. The ball was snapped on the A-19, and the linemen are at the A-21 when the ball is released, so they are legally downfield. Linemen can legally be in the expanded neutral zone when the ball is released and then advance multiple yards beyond the expanded neutral zone before it’s caught. So umpires need to be aware of that possibility.
The second component of the rule to consider is the location of the ball when it is caught. Rule 7-5-7 says pass interference restrictions only apply beyond the neutral zone and only if the legal forward pass, untouched by B in or behind the neutral zone, crosses the neutral zone. If the ball is caught behind the neutral zone, linemen can advance and block beyond the expanded neutral zone before the ball is caught.
In this clip, the umpire must judge, were the ineligible players illegally downfield, and did the receiver catch the ball behind the neutral zone.
It’s important to note, we can’t split hairs when ruling on player locations. It’s easy to look at film and run it in super slow motion and take out our measuring tape and say, “aha! He’s half a foot beyond the neutral zone!” Don’t be that guy…fouls need to scream, not whimper.
8 – The saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but with yearly rules book changes, sometimes old dogs need to learn tricks. In this case, it’s a new mechanic.
A7 is hit at the B-24 and the referee rules this is a fumble, not a forward pass. The ball goes out of bounds at the B-26. So this is a forward fumble out of bounds. Rule 4-3-1 exception says when a forward fumble goes out of bounds or is ruled out of bounds between the goal lines, the ball shall be returned to the spot of the fumble.
It’s real subtle, and I must confess I only noticed it while writing the script for this video, but the umpire walks to the B-25 and drops a bean bag. The next snap was from the B-25.
This is an example of a play that takes us by surprise. The old guard is not accustomed to tossing a bean bag when the ball is fumbled behind the line of scrimmage, as we previously only used bean bags to enforce penalties beyond the line of scrimmage.
Now we must put down a beanbag for all fumbles!
The ball was returned to the B-25. The game clocks starts with the referee’s silent wind.
9 – Here’s another “take us by surprise” video. The runner is hit and fumbles at the A-20. The head linesman tosses a bean bag.
Two defensive players cover the ball on the sideline. What must we think about in this instance? Rule 2-29-3 says a loose ball is out of bounds when it touches anything, including a player or game official that is out of bounds.
Many times, we were so focused on the location of the football and the player’s hands that we forget to observe the rest of the player’s body when he touches the ball. Notice B22 rolls and is halfway out of bounds when he touches the ball. His teammate may be inbounds, but when B22 touches the ball, it becomes dead.
This is a forward fumble out of bounds. The ball should be returned to the A-20 and the referee should give the silent wind to start the game clock.
10 – I’ll let you watch the video without commenting. What comes to mind?
Have you heard the saying, “no cheap turnovers, no cheap touchdowns”? Unfortunately, in this video we have both.
The runner’s forward progress has stopped at the B-13. Notice the line judge and linesman have squared off and are walking onto the field.
Kill it here! Don’t let this be a cheap turnover. It’s fine to whistle this dead multiple seconds after the defense grabs the ball. In my opinion, it’s okay to get together as a crew and determine the play should have ended at the B-13. The home team’s coach may be upset, but that’s okay. Get it right.
If the head coach is upset, I might something like, “Coach, I understand why you are upset. We should have blown the play dead when the runner’s forward progress was stopped. We screwed that up. But we got together and made the correct call. It was very late, but we got it right.”
Most head coaches are mature enough to know the rule and eventually agree with the decision.
11 – Rule 2-3 defines legal blocking techniques. Rule 9-2 addresses illegal use of hands and holding.
Take a look at A71. By rule, he’s guilty of holding on this play. His arms are outside his opponent’s torso, and he grabs and restricts his opponent.
But there are other factors to consider. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “there is holding on every play,” and that is not far from the truth. It’s almost impossible for a blocker to keep his hands and arms inside his and his opponent’s torso.
So we must add axioms, officiating standards, and officiating principles to our calculus. When we judge holding, we are looking for demonstrated restriction, at the point of attack, that impacts the play.
Was this demonstrated restriction? I think so. Was it at the point of attack? Definitely. Did it impact the play? It doesn’t appear so. The defender who was being held made the tackle. In addition to the rules book, we rely on officiating standards to help us determine if we should toss a flag.
If a player is illegally blocked or held “into” making a tackle, no foul should be called. In my judgement, this is the case in this play. It would be correct for the line judge to hold his flag. If a coach yells for a holding foul, I might answer, “Coach, it wasn’t a very good hold. His defender made the tackle.”
However, we need to be careful not to diminish our credibility because we pass on a holding foul. So we sometimes employ a second officiating standard: Obvious and intentional takedowns should be called. If it screams, we need to get it, even if the takedown did not impact the play.
12 – Our final play of the week is another “take us by surprise” video. There are currently 11 Team A players on the field. In 18 years of officiating, I honestly can’t recall seeing a 12th player run onto the field like this. I’m sure some of you might be thinking, “I’ve had this three times in the past 2 weeks!”
In this case, the referee was surprised and ended up killing the play and penalizing Team A 5 yards for an illegal substitution. (You can’t hear the whistle killing the play as I usually strip off the audio so you can clearly hear my narration.) It’s okay that the referee stopped the play, I’m sure no one knew he should have let the play go.
Rule 3-7-6 says, “During a down, a replaced player or substitute who enters the field, but does not participate, constitutes illegal substitution. The penalty is 5 yards, nonplayer foul, which means the penalty is enforced from the succeeding spot, not the previous spot.
This enforcement is different than the actions described in Rule 4-7 article 4 and article 5. Those are live ball fouls enforced from the previous spot.
That’s your weekly dozen for games through August 30, 2025. Thanks for watching!
If you encounter any interesting plays during your season, I’d love to see them. You can send them to me at contact@artofofficiating.com.