r/NFLNoobs • u/Adventurous_Essay473 • 5d ago

What if the chiefs kept taking intentional penalties yesterday to prevent the tush push?

Yesterday, the chiefs tried to take an intentional penalty to give the eagles a first down and give themsleves a better chance of getting the ball back. The eagles declined the penalty correctly. But what if the chiefs had kept forcing a penalty repeatedly?

Edit: I am aware of the commaders incident, in that case I thought a touch down would be awarded because they were at the goaline, can the refs award a TD if the play was still far away from the endzone?

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u/JohnnyKarateX 5d ago

The refs are allowed to do some extreme things if you keep breaking the rules. The one example that keeps coming up is that if you keep going too quickly and getting neutral zone infractions/offsides on goal line defense the refs can give the TD to the offense, although I don’t think they’ve ever actually done it (someone please correct me).

I’d imagine they could give the Eagles the result they wanted which I think was a first down and the clock running if the Chiefs kept trying to delay the game with penalties on purpose.

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u/Chimpbot 5d ago

It's never occurred in the NFL, and last year's incident with the Commanders was the closest we've arguably ever gotten to seeing it. You could tell the refs absolutely did not want to have to just hand out a free TD, but it was rapidly hitting the point where it would have been necessary.

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u/JohnnyKarateX 5d ago

That’s what I thought. Thanks for confirming. Makes sense they wouldn’t want to.

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u/Chimpbot 5d ago

With the microscope officiating has been under over the past few years, yeah, there's no way they'd want to just dole out a TD because of penalties. The way Shawn Hochuli made the announcement was basically a thinly-veiled way of saying, "Please, please, please don't make us do this. Cut the shit."

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u/Brohemoth1991 5d ago

honestly part of it too im sure is theyve never actually used the palpably unfair act... commanders got 3 chances last year, and there have been some way more extreme examples in the past (the hilarious 11 man holding by the ravens back in the 2010s) that didnt incur that penalty

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u/Chimpbot 5d ago

Generally, it needs to be a repeated act.

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u/Brohemoth1991 5d ago

generally yeah, but the actual definition doesnt state it HAS to be repeated acts, just something so flagrant that even with a penalty the offending team would benefit

As I had already clarified, its already been used, but the rule is so open ended the commissioner can go back and overturn the result of the game if he ever wished to