NYJ@TEN: In or out? Exhibit A

Call us simpletons, but to be credited with a touchdown, we believe you should actually touch the end zone. Just passing through the unseen ether above the end zone’s surface seems insufficient for a contact sport. You should contact the end zone with some body part while the ball is at or across the goal line.

Week 2 gave us three plays where touchdowns were granted even though the ball carriers did not make clean, fully inbounds contact with the end zone. All of them, in our view, are bogus touchdowns.

Here Tennessee’s Calvin Ridley gets popped by Jets’ cornerback Sauce Gardner and goes out of bounds on his first step beyond the goal line. It’s ruled a TD. Is that fair to Gardner? His effort prevented Ridley from planting an inbounds foot in the end zone. Yet the break-the-plane rule makes that step worth six points, forcing Gardner to defend an extra-wide end zone. That seems like — wait, that is — an unfair advantage for the offense. Hocus Bogus Rating: 4

BUF@MIA: In or out? Exhibit B (and B.2)

At the end of a 17-yard pass play, Buffalo’s James Cook cannot get his left foot, his first foot to cross the goal line, to land inbounds in the end zone.  

To us, that means Dolphins’ safety Jevon Holland (8) has done his job and forced Cook wide of the end zone. The break-the-plane rule, however, says no, no, no. Instead, it invites Cook to step as far out of bounds as he would like as long as he manages to floats through some portion of the end zone’s airspace. How convenient. Rating: 4.5

We’re not even going to count the out-of-bounds front-flip by the Chargers’ J.K. Dobbins as an airspace touchdown (see second video), though it certainly qualifies. He knows the break-the-plane rule means he can show off, not worry about some silly technicality like actually stepping in the end zone, and still collect six points  He can perform an end zone flyover, land 100 percent out of bounds and still be rewarded with a touchdown. Imagine that. Rating: 4

LAR@AZ: In or out? Exhibit C

This play involves terrific effort by Arizona rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. It also includes an outstanding chase-down by Rams’ safety Kamren Curl (3). Curl gets Harrison on the ground short of the goal line. But because he was able to simultaneously wave the ball above the goal line, Harrison gets six points. A familiar outcome: No love for the D. Rating: 2.5

Just asking: Are all planes created equal?

We agree this is a legit catch — and a great one by Cincinnati’s Andrei Iosivas. But if you believe in the break-the-plane rule, could it be argued that Iosivas was breaking the sideline plane and thus should be ruled out of bounds?

That would be an awful ruling. But it makes us wonder why leaning over the goal line yet never touching the end zone is conversely worth six points.