How many receivers can be on the line of scrimmage

The first two times the Patriots used the tactic, Vereen and Hoomanawanui, came off the field on the following play. The third time, a penalty allowed Vereen to stay on the field for the next play. Take this to the extreme, and an offense could trot nine skill players onto the field, make three of them ineligible, but run an option-based offense with myriad passing and lateral opportunities.

At minimum, an offense can create speed and blocking advantages with untraditional formations. The possibilities are endless, if the oft-conservative NFL got a little adventurous.

Anyway, it was a brilliant tactic, and proved once again why Belichick is the greatest coach of his generation. The Ravens played mostly man coverage but also plenty of two-deep zone to keep the Patriots on their toes. And when the Ravens gave away their blitz intentions along the goal line, he flashed a quick hand signal to Rob Gronkowski and hit him on an easy slant for a 5-yard touchdown against safety Will Hill.

Too easy. Brady took two sacks in the second quarter to knock the Patriots out of field goal range, one of which was definitely on Brady to get the ball out quicker. Melvin consistently played 8 yards off the line of scrimmage to prevent from getting burned, but Brady attacked him underneath all day. The Patriots threw at Melvin 15 times, completing 12 of those passes for yards and two touchdowns.

Melvin bit badly on the Edelman-to-Amendola yard touchdown pass, and the one time Melvin played press coverage, LaFell beat him for the winning yard touchdown. The Patriots targeted Melvin eight times in the second half, completing seven passes for yards and two touchdowns.

Melvin also whiffed on Amendola when the receiver did a great job of stretching for the first-down sticks. Wendell got beaten badly by Timmy Jernigan for a sack late in the second quarter, and Solder got beaten a couple of times by Suggs around the edge. But overall, the offensive line had a championship effort. A handoff or a pass was too risky, taking the safety would have cut their lead from 4 to 2, and even having Brady run around to milk some clock would have pinned the Patriots too close to their goal line for the punt situation, and leave Brady open for a big hit.

Executing a punt and defending a Hail Mary seemed like the safest option. If, for example, eight men line up on the line of scrimmage, the team loses an eligible receiver. An illegal formation is a penalty that is called against the offense for failing to line up prior to the snap according to specific guidelines.

There can be no more than six eligible receivers on each play. These players can include the quarterback, slot receivers, running backs, full backs, and tight ends. The other five players are ineligible receivers. With seven players on the line, that leaves three remaining players in the backfield, or at least a yard off the line of scrimmage, plus the quarterback. In the NFL, most defensive penalties result in an automatic first down.

The exceptions are offside, encroachment, neutral zone infraction, delay of game, illegal substitution, calling excess timeouts, running into a kicker, and having more than 11 men on the field. Penalties like Unsportsmanlike Conduct or Unnecessary Roughness do not necessarily mean an automatic 1st down, but since the yards penalized are 15, these penalties usually give the offense a first down.

Offensive holding should be a loss of down, not a replay of the same down if defensive holding is an automatic first. Defensive holding obviously has to be an automatic first. If it was not, every single DB in the league would just hold before the ball was in the air if they were about to get beat.

Essentially, blocking is pushing, with certain restrictions; in blocking one may not grasp another player or do any sort of pulling, and the hands must not extend beyond the line of each armpit; otherwise a holding penalty will be assessed. Penalty: For Roughing the Passer: Loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down; disqualification if flagrant. When in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactic against the quarterback, the Referee should always call roughing the passer.

So, if the offense held five yards behind the line of scrimmage, the hold actually was a yard penalty! Starting in , all illegal blocking fouls except personal fouls were reduced from 15 to 10 yard penalties. Rule 7 Section 4 Article 8. Rule 7 Section 4 Article 7. Rule 8 Section 5. Rule 12 Section 1 Article 3. Rule 8 Section 4 Articles Rule 12 Section 1 Article 6. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 5.

Rule 12 Section 2 Article 4. Rule 3 Section 4 Article 2. Rule 7 Section 4 Article 4. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 9.

Rule 12 Section 2 Article 2. Rule 8 Section 2.