Illegal Formation Penalties

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Sorry that this is off topic but it's from the same article. I don't get why everyone (and by everyone, I'm mostly talking about Nebraska media guys) is so hung up on the alignment penalties. They're acting like they've never seen it called before.

The referees: There seems to be something odd happening at the start of this year with illegal formation penalties. They’re getting called a lot. Not that they shouldn’t be, but is there some new emphasis?
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Link

This literally gets called a couple times in almost every game you watch and has for years. It was called a few times in the BYU game and "everyone" was asking if the refs were being picky but when you actually look at it, they were totally legit - receivers not even close to being on the line. I admit that the call on Gates was nit-picky but that gets called with enough frequency that people shouldn't be hung up about it. Tackles try to cheat back as much as they can for pass protection and sometimes they cheat a little too much.

 
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Actually, I agree that alignment penalties are being called more often. If they aren't, I perceive it to be so, as have several people in conversations.

 
knapplc said:
Actually, I agree that alignment penalties are being called more often. If they aren't, I perceive it to be so, as have several people in conversations.
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They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years.

And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past.

 
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
Actually, I agree that alignment penalties are being called more often. If they aren't, I perceive it to be so, as have several people in conversations.
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They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years.

And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past.
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There were five or six called in the BYU game alone, about equally between us & BYU. I remarked about it in the stands, how the refs could, apparently, see too many men in the backfield but they couldn't see a targeting hit or late hits out of bounds.

Maybe I'm just sensitive to it now after that game.

 
knapplc said:
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
Actually, I agree that alignment penalties are being called more often. If they aren't, I perceive it to be so, as have several people in conversations.
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They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years.

And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past.
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There were five or six called in the BYU game alone, about equally between us & BYU. I remarked about it in the stands, how the refs could, apparently, see too many men in the backfield but they couldn't see a targeting hit or late hits out of bounds.

Maybe I'm just sensitive to it now after that game.
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Here is one of the other Illegal Formation calls from the Miami game. We clearly do not have a WR on the line on the right side of the formation. It was the same way for BYU. So there may be more being called. But the assumption seems to be that the refs are just calling it more. It seems to me that we just aren't as good at getting lined up in the correct formation.

gLysU2.png


 
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
Actually, I agree that alignment penalties are being called more often. If they aren't, I perceive it to be so, as have several people in conversations.
Click to expand...
They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years.

And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past.
Click to expand...
There were five or six called in the BYU game alone, about equally between us & BYU. I remarked about it in the stands, how the refs could, apparently, see too many men in the backfield but they couldn't see a targeting hit or late hits out of bounds.

Maybe I'm just sensitive to it now after that game.
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Here is one of the other Illegal Formation calls from the Miami game. We clearly do not have a WR on the line on the right side of the formation. It was the same way for BYU. So there may be more being called. But the assumption seems to be that the refs are just calling it more. It seems to me that we just aren't as good at getting lined up in the correct formation.

gLysU2.png
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I saw this in the game, Westy isn't on the LOS, I think the refs are making it a point of emphasis though. How many did Miami have 3-4.

 
Mavric said:
Here is one of the other Illegal Formation calls from the Miami game. We clearly do not have a WR on the line on the right side of the formation. It was the same way for BYU. So there may be more being called. But the assumption seems to be that the refs are just calling it more. It seems to me that we just aren't as good at getting lined up in the correct formation.

gLysU2.png
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I'm not saying we are lining up correctly. I'm saying MAYBE they're calling it more.

The question is, have they always called this and we've always lined up correctly before, or is this a new focus for officials this year? It isn't only Nebraska they're calling it on; they called it on BYU more than Nebraska in the first game (twice for them, once for us).

 
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Game one - called three times

BYU - 2

NU - 1

Game two - called once

South Alabama - 1

NU - 0

Game three - called four times

Miami - 2

NU - 2

So eight times in three games, five times on our opponents, three on us.

I honestly thought it was more than that. I thought they called it at least five total times in the BYU game. Maybe some of them were declined?

 
Here are the remaining formation penalties from the Miami game:

Miami's WR at the bottom is clearly not on the line.

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From our kickoff - we have at least three guys who are not touching the 30 like they're supposed to. One guy is over a yard too far back.

CrGrtm.png


This is similar to the one on Gates. You can call it a little nit-picky but the right tackle is quite a ways back.

AlnPVC.png


The top two Miami players both look to be off the line.

glxL8Y.png


Miami only has 10 guys on the field for this play - they're missing their right TE.

qvj9mN.png


 
knapplc said:
Mavric said:
Here are the remaining formation penalties from the Miami game:

Miami's WR at the bottom is clearly not on the line.

om50IR.png
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On this one, did the Miami WR check with the line judge? That's basic football.
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Agree with that. Most of these are easily preventable. But I didn't ever see him check. In the first one I posted, we were confused about how to line up. Reilly steps up at the last second and kind of puts his hand out like he's trying to check with the official but he never turns his head to see if the official says he's OK or not.

 
Thanks for the posted photos, Mavric.

I will say that in regards to your third and fourth images, especially the third, that's become fairly acceptable in today's game, at least in my opinion. It's especially prevalent in the NFL. Offensive tackles line up almost a full yard (or more) behind the LOS and they're not counted as a player in the backfield. Referees just seem to let it happen. I think the zebras could legitimately call an extra 5 or more illegal formation penalties a game if they held tackles accountable for this. But, for whatever reason, they don't. Perhaps there's some Section 121, Part B, Rule 15, Subsection 1-CB1029301-9393-rabble-rabble-rabble rule I'm unaware of that allows linemen to do this.

As a side note, I was watching an NFL game this past weekend and one of the broadcasters said referees are paying a lot more attention to illegal formations this season in an attempt to crack down on them. Now, I don't know if this is transitioning over to the college game in any way. But, at least at the professional level, there's a concerted effort to make teams line up properly.

Edit - Well, Mavric did have the photos posted, now they're gone. Magic.

 
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Sam talked about these penalties in one of his pieces after the game:

Officials aren't letting the little things go, apparently. They called five illegal formation penalties Saturday. And two more were declined.
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So there were seven total in the Miami game. I know there were more in the BYU game than the three I counted, so apparently some of them were declined. I took that count I did earlier from ESPN's play-by-play breakdown. Maybe I'll check HuskerMax.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but this conversation has jogged my memory that refs were focusing on a few things this year (like blows to the head continues to be a focus) and maybe this was on the list? I can't google anything on it, though.

 
Wasn't there also a penalty on a Kickoff for the kicker being too far off the ball? Never seen that one called before.

 
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