Punt "Plane"?

[TecnoGenius]

Well, rulebook has "ball placement" and "placement of the ball" sections and neither addresses which "edge" of the line is used.  Thanks rule book...

For those who are having trouble visualizing what I'm asking, I thought of another point:

If the "nose to field edge" of the 1YL is always used for placement (like it is for a "X & goal from the 1"), then after a TOD the ball would be placed such that it is almost fully over the 1YL stripe.  That might look odd to people, because we're all used to only the nose touching the edge of the stripe.

If "dead ball line edge" is always used, then the placement would look more "normal" to most fans, regardless of which way the ball is going.

[TecnoGenius]

Rule book also doesn't really use the word "edge" for anything related.  The definition of "goal area" is of no help.  The only thing I could see that relates to "which edge of lines" is the specification that the field of play is bounded by the INSIDE edge of the rails/deadline.

Even the much-vaunted word "plane" (only used twice in this context) isn't defined.

So now I'm wondering if edges chosen as per this whole thread aren't just unwritten conventions taught in ref school.

I'm surprised no one knows what the definitive answer to this stuff is?  @jdrattops: can you check with your ref friends?

[bomb squad]

So I checked the OTT@WPG game because that had the 3 tries from the 1 (for OTT) and then after the TOD WPG snapped from the 1.

Unfortunately, TSN never shows a great angle pre-snap... or more importantly, pre-C-picking-up-the-ball.  The situation is made worse by every C moving the ball 6" forward when they lift it to ready for the snap.  (Everyone remember MOS chirping at the ref to flag the move-forward every C does?  LOL.)

Unless TSN cuts to a good overhead or down-the-line view BEFORE the C picks up the ball, I may not be able to get a good answer.

However, from what I was able to see, if you assume the C is always moving the ball 4-6" forward, I *may* be correct in that the "which edge of the line" question is dictated by which direction the ball is moving!  On both OTT and WPG snaps, the nose of the ball appeared to be on or past the "farther away from dead ball line" edge!  And since we know in the OTT snaps the ball would be placed on the nearest-to-deadball-line, and know the C's move the ball forward about a line's width, there may be some merit to my theory.

Next home game I'm going to try to spot the placements before the C picks it up if there are any 1YL plays.  However, 1YL "going the other way" scenarios are pretty rare (basically must be a TOD, or the ultimate in coffin corner punts).

It might be time to hit the rule book...

Just watched the highlights of that stand and you can clearly see the virtual blue los line butted right up against the field edge of the 1 yd line.

[TecnoGenius]

Just watched the highlights of that stand and you can clearly see the virtual blue los line butted right up against the field edge of the 1 yd line.

Hey, good spot.  That's handy.  Of course, with TSN's notoriously faulty computer line markers, who knows if we can trust that.  But you are correct: on both OTT downs at the 1YL and the WPG 1st snap, the blue line shows the field edge as the spot.  So that's some proof in favor of that theory.

However, on the WPG snap, check out the foot of the line judge.  If you follow the line it appears to be putting the spot at the deadline edge!  And the blue line is more on the 1YL marker where the judge is standing, instead of on the edge.  Of course, that really just indicates the blue graphics is imperfect, because clearly it's not actually parallel to the goal line.

I'll be watching other games more closely going forward to see if I can spot what's really going on.  I could go back in the PVR (still have most every game), but I'd probably need Junkie to give me a list of 1YL plays (especially ones going field-ward) to narrow my search.

And I'll be watching with my binocs in-person more closely... although from the 55 I may not get enough zoom and useful angles.  If anyone here sits in the corners near the GL, especially from 200-level, and has binocs, maybe they could help out?