Welcome to Art of Officiating’s “Weekly Dozen, Episode 3” featuring plays from games through September 13, 2026.
These plays are from games officiated in Colorado Springs, so I’ll reference the Colorado 5-person mechanics manual, along with Colorado rules interpretations and modifications. If anything I say doesn’t match what you do in your state, please consult your state’s mechanics manual and rules interpretations.
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1 – I’m going to show you four plays from our crew’s game last Friday night. In each clip, in my judgment, we got it wrong. I want to dissect these plays and tease out some teaching points from each.
Let’s start with helping the runner, which is a Point of Emphasis this year.
It’s fourth and two from the A-48. We’re coming out of a TV timeout, so the umpire is standing over the ball. Remember, he must stand over the ball any time the referee will blow the ready for play. Notice how he backs out of the formation rather than turning his back to the ball.
A10 rushes to the line and yells “hut,” attempting to cause Team B to encroach. Using only his voice to entice Team B to jump is not a foul. If A10 had exaggerated a head bob or made some other movement simulating the start of the play, then we could have a false start.
A10 backs out without simulating a snap. This is a shift. He then shifts again to go under center, and the snap follows almost immediately. By rule, A10 must be stationary for at least one second before the snap, or we have an illegal shift.
In my judgment, he is stationary for the required one second. This is legal.
Rule 9-1 says an offensive player may not push, pull, or lift the runner to assist his forward progress. And there is an important distinction here: pushing the pile is legal. To have a foul, the offensive player must make direct contact with the runner and actually assist his forward progress.
Watch the teammate come in from behind. This isn’t just a brief bump, and he isn’t simply pushing other players in the pile. He makes direct contact with the runner and continues to drive him forward.
I’m the referee. In my judgment, we missed this one. We could have ruled forward progress stopped before the assistance occurs, but I don’t particularly like that option. Technically, we might be able to justify killing the play for forward progress, but I think that would be overly technical because the runner is still fighting for legitimate progress.
If we’re going to allow the runner the opportunity to continue advancing, then we need to recognize what happens next.
The teammate comes in from behind and provides sustained assistance that moves the runner forward. I wish I had thrown a flag for helping the runner. Helping the runner is a five-yard penalty from the basic spot. If A6’s contact is behind the line of scrimmage, the basic spot is the previous spot. If A6’s contact is beyond the line of scrimmage, the basic spot is the spot of the foul.
Notice how both wings crash to the middle while giving the stop the clock signal. This adds credibility to their forward progress spot.
2 – Here’s another helping the runner play from last Friday, and I think we missed this one as well.
The ball is snapped from the B-14. The back judge is between the goal line and the end line and responsible for the goal line. He steps to the goal line as the runner approaches.
Remember, simply pushing the pile is legal. And we don’t want a flag just because a teammate briefly contacts or bumps the runner. We’re looking for direct contact that provides material assistance to the runner’s forward progress.
Watch A17 and A75. Both make direct contact with A8, and in my judgment, their actions provide material assistance that propels the runner into the end zone.
We should have a flag and a five-yard penalty from the spot of the foul rather than a touchdown.
Show 2a – This drone footage shows how A17 and then A75 directly contact A8 and shove him into the end zone.
Before I run the clip, I want to point out one additional item. The ball is snapped from the B-14, so the line judge is most likely focused on the area out of bounds between himself and the goal line. But as part of his pre-snap routine, he should turn to his right and clear the coaches’ area. The head coach is actually standing on the field.
This won’t cause a problem 99.9 percent of the time. But if there’s a turnover, the line judge may suddenly have to work quickly in the opposite direction, and now his route out of bounds is occupied.
A1 is left-handed, and I’m standing on the home team’s side of the field, so I could have helped clear the coaches’ area as well. This isn’t solely on the line judge. We both had an opportunity to recognize and correct it before the snap.
The key is not simply whether a teammate contacts the runner. Ask yourself: Did that contact actually assist the runner’s forward progress? On this play, I think the answer is yes.
3 – Here are two plays from another crew’s game that help illustrate where we don’t want a flag.
Watch A12. He generates his own surge forward. A7 comes in behind A12, and we certainly have contact. But contact by itself does not make this a foul. I don’t see A7’s contact providing material assistance to that forward progress. A12 is getting there on his own.
I like how the linesman crashes to the ball. As he races in, he should also be giving the stop-the-clock signal.
Most importantly, he shouldn’t compromise that spot by digging for the ball or trying to separate players. The umpire and referee can handle that.
Notice that once the players clear, the linesman places the ball on the ground at the forward progress spot. When we’re this close to the line to gain, we never want the umpire spotting the ball. The wings own the spot.
And because the linesman places the ball short of the line to gain, the referee winds the game clock.
This is a goal-line play with the same formation. Once again, A12 charges forward under his own power. A7 contacts A12, but in my judgment, he doesn’t add anything to that surge.
Remember, we’re not looking simply for contact with the runner. We’re looking for a push, pull, or lift that actually assists his forward progress. I don’t think we have that here, and I think the referee does a good job keeping the flag in his pocket.
Once again, the wings do a great job crashing to the ball. The linesman shouldn’t reach into the pile trying to find it. When you meet resistance, stop and go no farther. Let the umpire get into the scrum, find the ball, and then hand it to the linesman to spot.
Before we move on, I want to bring up an interesting observation that I’m sure some of you have already picked up on.
Under 2-32-9, a lineman is an A player facing the opponent’s goal line with his shoulders approximately parallel to it whose head or foot breaks the plane of the imaginary line drawn through the waist of the snapper. Looking at the formation, I believe both A7 and A22 satisfy that definition. So despite being staggered behind the interior linemen, they can legally be considered linemen.
The problem is A6. Under 2-32-3, to qualify as a back, his head and shoulders cannot break the plane through the waist of his nearest teammate who is on the line. His nearest lineman is A22. A6’s helmet appears to penetrate the vertical plane through A22’s waist. That means A6 does not satisfy the definition of a back.
Rule 7-2-3 allows only one A player who is not on the line to penetrate the waistline plane of his nearest lineman, and that player must have his hands positioned to receive a between-the-legs snap. That’s A12 here, not A6. Therefore, A6 has to be legally positioned as a back. He isn’t.
So in this video, A7 appears to be a legal lineman. A22 is a legal lineman. A6 is not legally a back; so in my judgment, this is an illegal formation under 7-2-3.
4 – The ball comes out quickly, and I like how the umpire turns to help with catch/no catch.
B9 intercepts the pass, and now look at the field. We have players scattered everywhere, with some colors moving against the flow of the play. This is exactly when we need to be on high alert for blindside blocks and blocks behind the runner.
The umpire must get on his horse and hustle downfield. We only need one official staying behind with players who are well behind the runner, and that’s the back judge, who is at the back end of the action. The umpire walks and is quickly left behind. He needs to sprint downfield and stay connected to the play.
And then we see why.
Well behind the ball, B23 decides to take a cheap shot at A4. The contact starts around the B-19. Fortunately, the back judge hustles and stays connected. He releases his flag around the B-44, and it lands all the way down around the B-11.
But I’d really like this flag to come from the umpire. With proper hustle, I’d like to see him somewhere around the B-30 or B-35, looking back at exactly these players behind the runner.
At the end of the clip, we see the umpire turned toward Team B’s sideline, presumably looking for a clean ball for the try following the touchdown. Watch the colors separate before moving on to the next action.
The back judge reported a block in the back to the referee. In this example, I think we need to flag B23 for a personal foul. Rule 9-4-3b says it is illegal personal contact for a player to charge into an opponent after he is obviously out of the play. But this is a minor point. The back judge flagged the illegal contact. This is a great crew save.
5 – Here’s another “head on a swivel” play.
I think our pucker factor needs to be at its highest on scrimmage kick plays and turnovers. We have players spread all over the field, colors going against the flow, and plenty of opportunities for unnecessary contact away from the ball.
I like what the line judge does here. He properly releases at the snap, gets about halfway between the line of scrimmage and the end of the kick, and is stationary as the return begins. He’s in a good position to observe the returner and, especially, the blocks ahead of the runner. He also backs up and gives himself plenty of room to officiate the play.
As the return begins, the referee’s attention is on the two players on the ground around the K-27.
Now watch R52 and K69. Around the K-43, R52 grabs K69 and slams him to the ground. We need either the umpire or the linesman from across the field to pick this up.
During the debrief later that week, the crew told me that number 52 had been acting up throughout the game. That’s useful information, and unfortunately, it means we need to spend too much of our radar energy focusing on these “bad actors” during these types of plays and during dead-ball periods. With only five sets of eyeballs on the field, we can’t afford to have one official lock onto a single player at the expense of officiating his area. We want heightened awareness of that player without developing tunnel vision, but that’s sometimes tough.
Sometimes we’re going to miss fouls like this. And it’s always tough when we see them so clearly on Hudl afterward.
6 – Back to my game last Friday; in this play we missed flagging an illegal forward pass.
The ball is snapped at the B-25. This appears to be a screen pass designed for A25 on the left side. But it’s almost as if Team B heard the play call in the huddle. Four backers are lined up to that side, and at the snap, they all attack the line of scrimmage. The play is completely blown up.
A10 retreats about 15 yards and then chucks the ball high and out of bounds.
Table 7-5-2 tells us it’s an illegal forward pass to intentionally throw the ball incomplete to save a loss of yardage, unless the passer has possessed the ball beyond the lateral boundary of the free blocking zone.
As the referee, my spider sense was tingling. I knew we might have a problem, so I dropped a beanbag to mark the spot of the pass. Unfortunately, I dropped it about four yards behind the actual release point.
After the play, I spoke first with the line judge and then the back judge to determine whether we had an eligible receiver in the area. We ultimately decided not to flag it, and we got it wrong.
A25 is the only eligible receiver on the left side of the field. When A10 releases the pass, A25 is around the B-32. The pass lands well out of bounds around the B-20.
This is a slam-dunk illegal forward pass. Yes, we talked about it, but I think we failed in our situational awareness. We didn’t have a clear picture of where the eligible receivers were or where the pass ultimately landed.
As the referee, I think I needed to be much more specific with my questions to the line judge and back judge about where the pass landed and whether an eligible receiver was really in the area. My initial thought was that something wasn’t right, which is why I dropped the beanbag. But I think I was too quick to accept the answers I got and move on, rather than dig a little deeper. It still didn’t feel right, and I gave up on it too quickly.
Our crew spent quite a bit of time talking through this play at halftime and again during our Hudl review this past week. It was a valuable lesson for all of us.
7 – The back judge brain-farted and was out of position when this play started. He does back up as the kicker boots the ball, but he should work toward the middle of the field and end up between the hash marks, not between the hash and the sideline. He confessed his sin in the locker room after the game, so we’ll move on.
Let’s focus on K10 as the ball comes down around the K-41.
Rule 6-5-6 says that while a scrimmage kick is in flight beyond the neutral zone, K may not obstruct R’s path to the ball. Watch R25. He approaches the ball, but then has to back away because K10 is directly in his path.
That’s kick-catching interference. And when the ball strikes K10 in the helmet, we also have first touching.
The ball is eventually downed at the K-35. Team R has three penalty enforcement options.
They can decline the penalty and take the result of the play, putting the ball at the K-35.
They can accept an awarded fair catch and enforce the 15-yard penalty from the spot of the foul, the K-41. That puts the ball at the K-26. And remember, because this is an awarded fair catch, Team R could also attempt a free kick from the K-26 and try to score three points.
Or they can enforce the penalty from the previous spot. The ball was snapped at the K-16, so we’d go half the distance to the K-8 and replay the down.
Obviously, option two is the superior choice: Team R gets the ball at the K-26 with an awarded fair catch and, depending on the game situation, even has the option of attempting a free kick.
8 – I want to finish this week’s video with a mechanics review. The ball is snapped from the B-12 and it’s fourth down and 4 yards to the line to gain. We have two money lines on this play: the B-8 and the goal line. The back judge is positioned halfway between the goal line and the end line and has goal line responsibility.
Watch the linesman at the snap. He moves to the line to gain and is stationary at that money line before the ball arrives. I watch a lot of Hudl video and I constantly see wings that are not aware of the line to gain location, so they just casually move downfield with the runner. It’s important for the wings to note the line to gain location as part of their presnap routine, and then immediately move to that money line when it is close. The punch line is, when possible, be at the line to gain and stationary when the ball arrives.
Note the back judge has moved to the goal line when he reads run. He’s on his money line and prepared to rule on the ball’s location when it becomes dead.
I’ve said in multiple videos, and even in this week’s video, that we need to have active umpires on the field. Notice how the umpire races to the cluster of players to provide presence and voice. I’d like to see the line judge close down as well to have two officials present in that large group of players.
That’s your Weekly Dozen, Episode 3 for games through September 13, 2026. Thanks for watching!
And if you encounter an interesting or unusual play during your season, I’d love to see it. You can send it to me at contact@artofofficiating.com.