SEA@SF: Pylon fly-by No. 1

Week 11 features a parade of pylon follies, starting with this wave-and-crash maneuver by San Francisco’s Brock Purdy. According to the existing break-the-plane rule, yes, this is a touchdown. But should it be?

Purdy never touches the end zone. Seattle’s Jarren Reed (90) forces him wide. All Purdy can do is wave the ball through a bare wisp of the end zone’s airspace before he lands out of bounds.

So, for making zero contact with the game’s designated scoring area, Purdy walks off with six points. It’s like waving a dart at a dartboard, never planting the dart on the board’s surface, and claiming a bullseye. That would be absurd. And to us, so is this call. Hocus Bogus Rating: 5

IND@NYJ: Pylon fly-by, No. 2

New York’s Breece Hall zooms past the pylon at the end of an 18-yard sprint just before he crashes out of bounds, forced wide of the end zone by Colts’ safety Julian Blackmon (32).

By slipping the ball through the end zone’s ether, Hall gets credit for six points. Blackmon gets no credit for keeping Hall off the end zone. He’ll just catch some flack for arriving too late to keep Hall from going airborne through a wee wedge of the end zone’s airspace. That’s a tough break. Rating: 5

KC@BUF: Pylon fly-by No. 3

Repeating the pattern seen in the first two examples, a defender forces a ball carrier to run wide of the end zone, take flight in front of the goal line and land out of bounds, never touching the end zone.

In essence, the break-the-plane rule gives players such as Kansas City’s Xavier Worthy the advantage of an extra-wide end zone, where his out-of-bounds crash landing is magically transformed into an in-bounds event. Here’s your six points, Xavier. Try not to laugh out loud at the silliness of the rule as you trot back to the bench. Rating: 5

HOU@DAL: Pylon fly-by No. 4

Week 11 included just one defensive touchdown in 14 games, and it turned out to be a no-touch touchdown.

After scooping up a loose ball during a play that featured two fumbles, Barnett dashed to the corner of the end zone and, perhaps thinking a tackler might be closing on him, long jumped over the pylon before landing at least a foot out of bounds. No end zone touched? No problem, thanks to the break-the-plane rule. Rating: 5

WAS@PHI: Pylon fly-by No. 5

Our final entry is not as dreadful as the first four. At least Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley got part of his foot in the end zone after he ran wide to the edge of the end zone while trying to elude defenders. Just not his entire foot.

In any other circumstance anywhere on football’s field of play, Barkley would have been ruled out of bounds. Except here, in the area of the field where they dish out points. Shouldn’t this be the place where the rules are more demanding? Instead, it’s where the rule is the softest. Rating: 2.5

Footnote: What about this one?

In case any readers think this site is simply anti-offense, check out this play, the deciding touchdown in the Chargers’ 34-27 win over Cincinnati.

When L.A.’s J.K. Dobbins launches himself into the end zone along the sideline, does his land in the green or is he on the white after he breaks the plane?

It’s tight, but we think when the bal first makes contact with the field, it is in the green by a thin, thin margin. Once he lands and the ball compresses, the ball’s surface flattens and spreads into the white. Thus we say touchdown.

At this site, we don’t advocate for fewer touchdowns, just better touchdowns, such as the one Dobbins scored earlier in this same game.  (See second video.) That’s how it should be done.