Welcome to Art of Officiating’s “Weekly Dozen”, comprising plays through October 25, 2025. These videos are from Colorado 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 – In the Week 7 video, we discussed forward progress precepts. I want to begin Week 9 with another forward progress clip. Rule 2-15-1 says forward progress is the end of advancement of the ball, toward the opponent’s goal, in a runner’s possession.
We need to determine the yard line where the runner’s forward progress was involuntarily halted. The word “involuntary” is not in the Rules Book, but thinking of descriptive words to amplify the rules book verbiage is helpful, as long as we don’t stray from the intent of the rule.
A runner doesn’t have to be wrapped up or physically restrained for his forward progress to be ruled stopped. Forceful contact that clearly drives the runner backward is enough. However, if the runner meets resistance and then retreats on his own to look for another path, the covering wing should not rule that forward progress was stopped at the point of initial contact—the runner voluntarily changed direction.
The head linesman must mark the yard line where his forward progress was involuntarily stopped.
A12 runs into his teammate A57, who is engaged in blocking B16. The key question is: how much of A12’s movement afterward is a voluntary retreat to break free, and how much is simply being carried backward B16’s contact?
This one’s tough. As I’ve mentioned in previous videos, I have the benefit of slowing this play down and watching it dozens of times. The linesman only gets one look at it in real time. I like his spot based on what he processed in the moment. I’d like to see the line judge mirror his partner more closely—while dead-ball officiating, he should quickly adjust his position to match the linesman’s location.
I also like how the referee maintains a cushion until the ball becomes dead, then closes in to provide proximity to the pile. If the umpire doesn’t get there quickly, the referee can step in to supply both the presence and the voice needed to manage players.
2 – Here’s a great “what right looks like” mechanic near Team A’s goal line. The ball is snapped from the B-4, so the wings have “reverse goal line” responsibility. The referee is on the end line, so at the snap, the wings must immediately retreat to the goal line to determine the ball’s location when the runner is downed.
You can’t execute this any better. The wing immediately retreats to the goal line and is stationary to rule that the ball completely left the end zone when the runner was driven backward. He doesn’t just stay planted on the sideline—he hustles onto the field and “gets big” as he marks forward progress.
If the wing doesn’t properly execute reverse goal line mechanics and is standing on the B-4 when the runner is contacted, he’s just guessing.
One final note: the home team’s coach wants to stop the clock to get the ball back with enough time for one more series. We should allow him to leave the coaches’ area to request a timeout. I always make that part of the pregame conversation: “Coach, if you need to call a timeout and I’m near the goal line, come down the line to get my attention.”
3 – It’s second and three from the A-41. Although it’s not expressly mentioned in the Colorado mechanics manual, I like to see the wings treat the line to gain as a money line. This means they should move to the line to gain at the snap. The punch line is they should be stationary at the line to gain when the ball arrives.
Neither wing moves much at the snap. If the ball was downed at the A-44, we wouldn’t have eyes on that line.
The line judge hops or bounces on his way to the forward progress spot. Don’t keep your torso parallel to the sideline; instead, turn your torso and walk (or trot or sprint if needed) as you advance.
Now let’s focus on the matchup between three home team blockers and two visiting team defenders. B53’s helmet comes off, and multiple players immediately turn to the officials to complain.
We get a few teaching points from this action:
First, unless the back judge clearly witnesses a foul—most likely a facemask foul by a blocker—B53 must leave the field for at least one play. All officials should give the stop-the-clock signal, and the player must depart. The wing should inform the coaches that the player must be replaced. Sometimes coaches are managing other responsibilities and may not immediately realize a substitute is needed. Wait until the defense has 11 players on the field before blowing the ready-for-play whistle with a 40-second play clock since the helmet came off a defensive player.
Second, as you can see from the clip, players or coaches may automatically assume a foul caused the helmet to come off. Sometimes it’s because the helmet is not properly secured. The covering official shouldn’t guess, or air quotes, “err on the side of safety.” He must clearly witness a foul to toss a flag. There is obviously contact to B53’s helmet, but did the blocker deliver a blow above the shoulders or was this incidental contact amid the congestion?
4 – In Week 5 I showed a block in the back flag during a free kick and I mentioned in my opinion, among all the rulings we make, the one most often called incorrectly is the block in the back.
There will be two illegal block in the back flags during this play, and in my judgment, both blocks in question were legal. I’ll show a drone video to help illustrate.
This block was flagged.
Rule 2-5-2 says blocking in the back is a block against an opponent when the initial contact is in the opponent’s back inside the shoulders and below the helmet and above the waist. It appears the blocker initiated contact above the waist and from the side, and then maintained the block as the B9 moved to intercept the runner. The end of the block appears to be an illegal block in the back, but since initial contact was from the side, this is not a foul.
This second block was also ruled a block in the back. I don’t see any illegal contact. It appears B23 simply dives and misses the tackle. The back judge can’t just look at the end of the play and assume A21 was guilty of a foul based on how B23 landed. As I’ve said before, blocks in the back need to absolutely SCREAM, and we need to see the beginning, middle, and end of the action. If we think it’s a foul, it’s not.
One officiating standard is to look for “chasers.” Chasers will block an opponent from behind. A player who is not a chaser will not block an opponent in the back. A21 is not a chaser.
Here is the drone video of the play. Notice how the coach is yelling and pointing to the block. I’m not saying this happened, but this is a reminder we will often hear complaints from the coaches near us on the sideline, and we need to discount that “noise”. The coach steps toward the sideline and forces the line judge to move around him. I wouldn’t flag that if the coaches have stayed out of the restricted area up to this point, but this would be a perfect opportunity to put money in the bank and remind the coach to stay out of the restricted area while the ball is live. I love how the line judge tosses his flag and then races down the field to continue to officiate to the end of the play.
A21 barely gets a hand on B23. This is not a block in the back.
5 – Here’s another legal block that was flagged. R0 is not a chaser. The contact is with open hands from the side. K4 doesn’t face plant; he lands on his side.
Two Team K players contact the runner and drive him almost to the track. This must be flagged as a personal foul.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and I like how the umpire and back judge immediately joined the line judge in the team box. Sometimes I see clips where an official stands by his flag while the umpire strolls toward the sideline. In this case, it’s textbook coverage of a potentially volatile situation.
6 – Team A breaks the huddle and A5 indicates to the line judge he will be on the line of scrimmage while A35 indicates to the linesman he is in the backfield. A5 then forgets where he is supposed to line up and points into the backfield. The line judge then punches back twice to indicate the two outside players on his side are in the backfield. He actually has three players on his side, in the backfield, because A11 is outside the right tackle.
At the snap, only the line judge tosses his flag.
Here are a few points to consider. First, I’d like to see the line judge hold his signal until he sees confirmation from the linesman. He punches back twice, but then drops his arm. I’m not sure the linesman saw him punch back. He does tap his flag, which is a signal to the opposite wing that he will sky his flag at the snap.
Second, I’d like to see him actually sky the flag. He tosses it no higher than head level. Remember, we throw a flag to communicate that a foul has occurred—it’s a signal to everyone on the field. It’s like the old saying: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it…” Facetiously, if we don’t throw it high enough for anyone to see, does the foul really exist? Of course it does, but we need to communicate the foul a little better with a flag skied straight up.
The formation is strong to the line judge’s side, so the line judge’s passing play initial responsibility is A11, and the back judge has the two outside receivers on that side.
A83 goes in motion, which changes the keys. The line judge keeps A11 and the back judge now only has A5. The linesman now has A35 and A83.
The line judge stays connected to A11. That’s his key. Great job. As soon as A12 releases the ball, the line judge must get on his horse to close down as much as possible to help the back judge with the matchup when the ball arrives far downfield.
I also like how he stays visually connected to the players out of view before he turns to report the foul to the referee. Continue to dead-ball officiate. Wait for the players to separate, and then move on to the next action.
7 – This is the block we’re going to watch. The back judge has a great view of this block. The line judge should be looking ahead of the runner, but he also has responsibility to view the pending contact on the runner, so he most likely has narrowed his view to a possible tackle as B17 approaches.
Here is what I absolutely love in this play. The umpire is not walking! He is working hard to stay connected, and he’s not laser-focused on the runner (who is not his responsibility). He continues to look ahead of the runner and correctly flags the hold and takedown.
Let’s get this coach off the field. He cannot come onto the field to indicate objection to a game official’s decision. This doesn’t mean we throw a flag to “make a point” (and I want to point out the crew did not flag this coach). We should never throw “statement” flags. “How dare you!” flags are also not appropriate. Part of game management is to show restraint and firmly and politely move the coach back to the sideline. However, if this coach has already been warned multiple times and continues the behavior, then a flag is justified.
8 – The score is 37-0 with 8 minutes and 40 seconds remaining in the third quarter. These games can be tough to officiate. There’s nothing like a close game to keep our senses sharp. We need to figure out a way to stay engaged when a game is out of hand.
We’ll first focus on the back judge through the end of the clip. Don’t focus on the players yet, just watch the back judge. I’d like to see more energy from the back judge. He shows the defense is full, but I’m not sure he actually counted 11 players? Team A is ready to snap the ball, and the back judge is not yet facing the players. The ball is snapped on the B-14, so he correctly sets up halfway between the goal line and the end line.
I’d like to see him hustle to the goal line, be a little less nonchalant with his touchdown signal, and also face the runner as he signals.
Now on to the play itself.
The umpire tosses a flag for holding. Despite the score, I don’t mind this flag. We can’t throw the rules book out the window, and we can’t overlook this foul that prevented the game from reaching a running clock. This restriction was at the point of attack.
The umpire should avoid crossing the goal line while the ball is live. Since he started in the field of play, he should be careful not to back up over the line, especially when the wings are responsible for ruling on the goal line.
9 – Here’s a touchdown run from earlier in the same game, and this time I’m not thrilled with the referee’s holding flag.
It appears B41 takes an outside route to attempt to reach the runner and I don’t see material restriction. I don’t think this action screams enough to warrant a flag.
The ball is snapped from the B-6. The wings are responsible for the goal line. The back judge is on the end line.
Neither wing makes an effort to move toward the goal line. If the runner is tackled at that money line, we’re back to guessing.
10 – We’ll once again discuss forward progress in this clip. First, notice the umpire’s eye-discipline. He doesn’t turn and watch the ball. He’s focused on his area, the wedge ahead of the runner.
I think the runner’s forward progress was stopped before the ball was ripped out of his grasp. The umpire initially correctly moves to the R-21 to match the runner’s movement. It’s okay to mentally process the play after the ball comes loose and even though it may be a little delayed, correctly decide the ball was dead before the fumble.
If the line judge has an opinion, he can approach the umpire and ask if he thought forward progress was stopped before the ball came loose.
No cheap turnovers.
11 – The formation is balanced. In two previously Weekly Dozen videos, we discussed the importance of identifying the tight end’s location presnap. A17 is the tight end at the end of the line on the line judge’s side. We can’t see the line judge in this view, but I’m assuming he’s punching back to indicate A83 is in the backfield. The line judge will observe A17 when he reads pass, and the back judge will key on A-83.
The ball is snapped on the A-20. The umpire hustles to the line to rule on the passer’s location when he releases the ball.
It would be a crime to flag A-83 for offensive pass interference. This is not a block. He barely touches B2.
Okay, back to the main point of this video.
A73 is at the A-22 when the passer releases the ball. Remember, we must take a visual snapshot of the ineligible player’s location when the ball is in flight.
A73 was not beyond the expanded neutral zone when the ball is thrown, and hypothetically, even if he was on the A-23 or even the A-24, I wouldn’t throw a flag as he was all by himself, and the defense is not drawn to him as a potential receiver. No unfair advantage would be gained.
The linesman gives up on the play. The runner continues downfield, but now we’re officiating the play with only four officials. The umpire, as always, is hustling to stay connected. But we need that opposite official to run down the field to help with cross-field mechanics if necessary. Also, if A17 fumbles and the ball moves to the visitor’s side of the field, no one will be there.
Continue to officiate to the end of the play as if you had not thrown a flag.
12 – There are multiple mechanics issues in this final video. The formation is balanced, so the line judge’s passing play initial responsibility is A6.
The line judge stares into the backfield until the pass is thrown, and then he shifts his eyes to A29. That’s too late. We’ll miss illegal use of hands, holding, or offensive pass interference if we wait until this moment to look downfield.
I like that the line judge remains at the line of scrimmage. I often see wings drift downfield for no reason on passing plays. He won’t get run over from this position, and he has a wide enough field of view to watch the receiver’s hands and feet.
The runner is driven backward out of bounds, so his forward progress was stopped in the field of play. The line judge should give the wind the clock signal, and not stop the clock.
He has a player behind him, so he must face out of bounds, and not the field of play, while he marks forward progress. There’s nothing to officiate in front of him. He has a player in the opponent’s team box area, so he needs to focus on that.
Finally, notice he’s marked forward progress at the A-41, and the line to gain is the A-42. Here’s the next snap. First and 10 from the A-41. I’m not sure what happened there. Someone on the crew of five should have noticed that.
That’s your weekly dozen for games through October 25, 2025. Thanks for watching!