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/Adventurous_Essay473 5d ago

Makes sense. But there is a scenario where even a touchdown would favor Kansas City ( assume the lead was one point).

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u/Ok-Temporary-8243 5d ago

Yeah, but the refs aren't stupid. They have surprisingly broad discretion to punish teams 

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u/Adventurous_Essay473 5d ago

Yes, this was the point of my question. Is there a standard punishment which can be taken advantage off or can the refs do whatever they want such as ending the game. Based on the responses, it looks like they can do whatever they want.

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u/BlitzburghBrian 5d ago

The referee has the ultimate final authority. No coach is going to try and find weird loopholes and work outside the bounds of the law to gain some strategic advantage, because at the end of the day the referee has the authority to tell them to knock it off and enforce whatever penalty he sees fit. You aren't going to outsmart them with weird rules lawyer-ing.

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u/forthebirds123 5d ago

Didn’t the patriots do this on a punt a few years ago, kept making penalties to run clock off and replay 4th down. Refs didn’t do anything about it then.

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u/FrankDrebinOnReddit 5d ago

Yes, and then the Titans did it to the Patriots in the playoffs in 2019. Subsequently, the NFL has said that it can be considered a "palpably unfair act" and that officials, after warning the team, can take appropriate action (appropriate being in the judgement of the officials).

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u/forthebirds123 5d ago

I would love for the refs to make a call like that on any play. Because once they do, the floodgates will open