You Make the Call Review: Block in the Back Against Stanford
Boy, that Stanford game seems like it was a while ago, doesn’t it? Shoot, it was four APR sacks and 266 Tuten rushing yards ago! Okay, bad examples there. But we do have a You Make the Call to break down before we get to some QB contact, so let’s dive in.
I’ll admit I cheated a bit on this one, because the camera angles are awful for making this call. My itty bit of sadism aside, I chose this play to highlight both the nuance of this rule and why this situation is one of the trickiest to officiate in all of football.
And credit to the Subscribers who commented on that article, a bunch of you picked up on that, and I thought you all did a good job of assessing this one from the viewpoint of the BJ, whether or not you agreed with the actual call.
Almost brings a tear to this back judge’s eye.
Here’s the play:
To start, let’s take a look at the rule governing blocks in the back.
A block in the back is contact against an opponent occurring when the force of the initial contact is from behind and above the waist… The position of the blocker’s head or feet does not necessarily indicate the point of initial contact. (2-3-4)
And from the Officiating Standards section:
For blocks in the back, if one hand is on the number and the other hand is on the side and the initial force is on the number, it is a block in the back. The force of the block could be slight and still a foul if the contact propels the player past the runner or prevents the player from making the play. If the force is clearly from the side, it is not a foul. If the blocker is in a “chase mode” all the action must be from the side to be legal. (II-8-5)