Illegal batting

#1
9296potsguy

9296potsguy

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#1
On the play that Eason recovered a fumble in the end zone, the ball was batted towards him by the ball carrier. Was this not an illegal play? I was sure of it when I saw it and have not seen one mention of it during the game.
 
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#2
#2
9296potsguy said:
On the play that Eason recovered a fumble in the end zone, the ball was batted towards him by the ball carrier. Was this not an illegal play? I was sure of it when I saw it and have not seen one mention of it during the game.
Click to expand...

I believe it's only illegal to bat it forward on 4th down.
 
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#3
#3
I wondered that myself. We won though, don't matter now. In all honesty to me it looked like it was shuffled around a little bit.
 
#4
#4
I have not gotten a chance to see this play (I was at the game Saturday), but I do know that an "Illegal Bat" is not allowed regardless of the down or situation. An Illegal Bat is an Illegal bat. An Illegal Bat is defined as "Any player batting or punching a loose ball in any direction".
 
#5
#5
There is no way to judge intent on the player throwing his arm towards the ball. You could just as easy say he was trying to grab the ball. The problem is they need to do the NFL rule that a fumble recovered by the offense returns to the spot of the fumble
 
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#7
#7
Have not reviewed the play but I believe the ball had already rolled into the end zone when it was batted.
 
#9
#9
This is what I can find. If someone has an official handbook, I'd be curious.

Batting: While a pass is in flight, any player eligible to touch it may bat it in any direction, but he may not bat other loose balls (fumbles) forward in the field of play or any direction in the EZ (10 yds and loss of down)
Click to expand...
 
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#10
#10
TNsnyper20 said:
This is accurate. Only illegal on 4th down to fumble forward.
Click to expand...

Correct, but the topic of question here is whether or not the ball was batted & if that was legal or not (it is not). This has nothing to do with fumbling forward/backward/sideways. Purely in regards to whether or not a loose ball may be batted.
 
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#11
#11
Valencia said:
Have not reviewed the play but I believe the ball had already rolled into the end zone when it was batted.
Click to expand...

I have not either.. However, if the ball was in fact illegally batted, it would not matter if it was in the end zone or not at the time of the batting.. Batting is batting.
 
#12
#12
I honestly don't think the RB blatantly batted the ball forward.

First, the RB was going full speed, not in slow motion like the replay.
Second, the QB was behind him so who was he tipping it to?
 
#13
#13
I wondered the same thing. Eason is on the ground, reaches out, and bats it forward. The only thing I could think of is that he unintentionally moved it forward while trying to recover. It looks like a bat to me, though
 
#16
#16
TnColt8 said:
I have not either.. However, if the ball was in fact illegally batted, it would not matter if it was in the end zone or not at the time of the batting.. Batting is batting.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar enough with the rules to know, but the term "illegal batting" implies (to me, at least...) there must be a bat which is legal.
 
#17
#17
Valencia said:
Have not reviewed the play but I believe the ball had already rolled into the end zone when it was batted.
Click to expand...

TnColt8 said:
I have not either.. However, if the ball was in fact illegally batted, it would not matter if it was in the end zone or not at the time of the batting.. Batting is batting.
Click to expand...

Here you go. The RB was reaching for the ball with his head on the ground. He was just reaching for the ball.

https://youtu.be/u1mSZL6wSIc?t=3383
 
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#18
#18
9296potsguy said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mSZL6wSIc


Around the 56:25 mark. Again, it was probably a judgement call on whether it was intentional or not.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clip!

I would say it was unintentional. Ballcarrier's first reaction upon fumbling is obviously to try to recover. Since he was pinned down, I don't see how anything could've been called there.

Thanks again for posting!
 
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#21
#21
Valencia said:
I'm not familiar enough with the rules to know, but the term "illegal batting" implies (to me, at least...) there must be a bat which is legal.
Click to expand...

I would probably lean towards saying that since "Illegal Batting" is "Illegal" because you are batting a live & loose ball that has touched the ground , an example of a "legal" bat would be simply batting away a forward pass or lateral.
 
#22
#22
It appeared to me that he was trying to bat the ball away from the Vols in the area to keep them from recovering the fumble which would be illegal.
 
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#23
#23
9296potsguy said:
On the play that Eason recovered a fumble in the end zone, the ball was batted towards him by the ball carrier. Was this not an illegal play? I was sure of it when I saw it and have not seen one mention of it during the game.
Click to expand...

I think that it's only illegal to purposely bat it forward (or anywhere, for that matter). He was reaching for the ball and knocked it forward accidentally. At least that's the way I saw it.
 
#24
#24
Guy just looked like he was flailing for the ball. Eason had to change his trajectory to recover it after the bat, so it wasn't exactly an advantage.
 
#25
#25
Bukowskified said:
There is no way to judge intent on the player throwing his arm towards the ball. You could just as easy say he was trying to grab the ball. The problem is they need to do the NFL rule that a fumble recovered by the offense returns to the spot of the fumble
Click to expand...

We would have lost the app State game. Potentially that is.
 
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