PIT@KC: ‘Did he get the pylon?’

That’s the question announcer Jim Nantz asks while watching replays of this stop-start run by Kansas City’s Mercole Hardman: “Did he get the pylon?”

Call us old-fashioned, but we thought the objective of the offense is to get to the end zone. As we point out in our Pylon section, pylons are objects that by the NFL Rulebook’s definition are positioned outside the field of play.

Yet over time the pylon — located on the sideline (i.e., out of bounds) — has become grafted into the sacred space of the end zone, the Land of Six Points, a place old-timers used to call paydirt. That’s an extra four inches of scoring space on the front end of each end zone. Pretty handy if you’re on offense. How this anomaly came to be is a mystery.

What’s not a mystery is that Hardman got no part of the end zone. Yet he is awarded six points despite crashing out of bounds in front of the goal line.

Pittsburgh linebacker Robert Spillane (41) knocked Hardman out of bounds in front of the pylon, but officials ruled that in their estimation Hardman managed to wave a fragment of the football above the pylon, which qualifies as a touchdown. The reasoning must be: Well, he’s close enough. Why not just give it to him? 

We offer this counter-argument: Why not make him reach the end zone instead?  Hocus Bogus rating: 5

DET@ATL: Don’t lean into this

Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown briefly leans over the goal line while Falcons’ safety Richie Grant (27) lassos his legs and linebacker Foye (Foyesade) Oluokun (54) wraps him up and wrestles him backwards. St. Brown never reaches the end zone.

According to break-the-plane rationale, that momentary lean is more valuable than the strength, persistence and determination demonstrated by the two defenders. Seems odd to us. Rating: 5

DET@ATL: Shrewd shortcut

Here Atlanta’s Cordarrelle Patterson exploits the break-the-plane rule by skipping the path to the end zone (the more challenging route) and instead going extra-wide left while playing can’t-catch-me with the Detroit defense.

Patterson knows he does not have to touch the end zone, just give the ball a brief little wave near the pylon and bingo, instant six points. The move in essence means the defense has an extra-wide area to defend, since Patterson can run out of bounds in front of the goal line but still get six by doing the ol’ pylon wave-over. It’s a clever move that results in a cheap touchdown that is no fun to watch. Rating: 4.5

LAC@HOU: Pylon waveover

While it lacks the savvy cunning of Cordarrelle Patterson’s run above, the result is the same: Houston’s Rex Burkhead cannot reach the end zone, but he can manage to wave a just enough of the ball over a small corner of the end zone’s airspace as he goes flying out of bounds after a good hit by Chargers’ safety Alohi Gilman (32).

It’s an athletic, dramatic-looking play by Burkhead, but he never touches the end zone. Gilman’s hit kept him out. Yet because during his end zone fly-by Burkhead broke a tiny, fractional piece of the Great Invisible Plane, he gets six points. We say Nix Six. Rating: 4.5

CLE@GB: Historic pylon poke

On this play, Aaron Rodgers passed Brett Favre for the most touchdown passes in Green Bay franchise history, collecting No. 443 with this 11-yard pass play which WR Allen Lazard punctuates with a lunging pylon poke. 

The end zone goes untouched on this play. Commentator Troy Aikman is nonetheless impressed: “Look at the effort by Allen Lazard to get to the pylon.” Yet pylons by rulebook definition are not in the field of play, yet bonking one as Lazard does here is celebrated as a historic occasion.

Applying our rule, we would rule this a Nix Six. Rating: 4.5