Famous Fumbles

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about turnovers, I thought I would share a few examples of (in)famous fumbles in NFL history.  They feature a Brown, a Cowboy and an Eagle.  Enjoy!

Cleveland vs. Denver, 1987 AFC Championship

Our first famous fumble is courtesy of Earnest Byner, running back for the Cleveland Browns in their AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos on January 17, 1988.  The game had been a series of stops and starts for the Browns.  Having trailed the Broncos 3-21 at halftime, the Browns came back to eventually tie the game at 31.  Denver went ahead 38-31 with four minutes left in the game, then the Browns drove to the Denver 8-yard line with 1:12 left.  Browns quarterback handed off the ball to Byner, who ran toward the end zone.  At the 2-yard line, he was stripped of the ball and fumbled.  The Broncos recovered the fumble and went on to win the game and advance to the Super Bowl.  This moment in the game has since been known as “The Fumble.”*

While this fumble is famous for its fatal outcome, and its overshadowing of an otherwise spectacular game for Byner, the next two blunders are known for their abject stupidity.

Cowboys v. Buffalo, Super Bowl XXVII (January, 1993)

In the last moments of Super Bowl XXVII, the Dallas Cowboys had a commanding 52-17 lead over the Buffalo Bills.  The Bills, playing for pride, were attempting to drive down the field when they fumbled near midfield.  Cowboys defensive tackle Leon Lett recovered the fumble and began running toward the Bills’ end zone for a clear touchdown.  As he got to the 10-yard line, however, he slowed down and held the ball away from his body in early celebration.  What he didn’t know is that Bills wide receiver Don Beebe had been chasing him and was quickly closing the distance.  Just before Lett’s hand reached the goal line, Beebe swatted the ball out of his hand.  The ball rolled through the end zone and out of bounds, resulting in a touchback, giving the Bills the ball on the 20-yard line.  Fortunately for Lett, his showboating didn’t cost the Cowboys the game, but he will forever be known for this classic blunder.**

Philadelphia vs. Dallas, September 15, 2008, Monday Night Football

Before a national television audience, and against their division rivals, the Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles rookie wide receiver DeSean Jackson committed an error that was perhaps more moronic than Lett’s.  After catching a 60-yard pass from quarterback Donovan McNabb, Jackson was racing for the end zone to score an easy touchdown when he spiked the ball in celebration . . . at the 1-yard line!  Fortunately for Jackson, the official at the spot signaled a touchdown and none of the Cowboys players in the area jumped on the ball.  Therefore, when the Cowboys successfully challenged the touchdown, the result was that the Eagles had the ball on the 1-yard line, where they were able to run the ball into the end zone on the next play.

One might forgive Jackson, to an extent, for being a young, inexperienced player overly excited about scoring on national television.  However, he did almost the exact same thing in a high school all-star game!  Check it out:

*This is not the first time that the Broncos crushed the Browns’ hope for a Super Bowl appearance.  Faithful Naptime Huddle readers will recall that it was one year earlier that John Elway led the Broncos on “The Drive” against the Browns in the last moments of the game to win the AFC Championship. 

**This wouldn’t be Lett’s last, or even worst, lapse in judgment.  The very next season, on Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys were leading the Miami Dolphins by one point with 15 seconds left in the game.  The Dolphins tried to kick a field goal, but the kick was blocked.  Lett tried to pick up the loose ball but muffed it, and the Dolphins ended up recovering the football.  They made their second field goal attempt and won the game.  If Lett had only fallen on the ball instead of trying to pick it up, the Cowboys would have won.

Turnovers: Interceptions and Fumbles

If the word “turnover” only calls to mind fruity pastries, then this post is for you.  Today we explore the ways that a team accidentally loses possession of the ball.

A turnover is when the team with the ball loses possession of the ball to the other team.  There are two types of turnovers:  the interception and the fumble.  Notice that I didn’t say “when the offense loses possession of the ball to the defense.”  There are two reasons for this:  (1) possession can occur during a special teams play when the teams are the “receiving” and “kicking” teams; and (2) there can be multiple turnovers on the same play, so that the offense initially loses the ball but then a scene from Keystone Kops ensues and the defense loses it after gaining possession!  What fun!

INTERCEPTIONS

An interception occurs when a defensive player catches a pass that was meant to be caught by a player on the offense.  There is usually not much dispute over whether an interception has occurred, unless there is a question of whether the defensive player actually caught the ball.  However, there may be a question of whether the defensive player committed a pass interference penalty in the process of catching the ball.*  As you learned in my post on challenges, a judgment by the officials over whether a penalty such as pass interference occurred is not reviewable.

One quirk on interceptions:  if both the offensive and defensive player come down with their hands on the ball so that it looks like they both have possession, the offense keeps possession of the ball at the spot where the ball was caught.  In other words, to borrow a phrase from baseball, “the tie goes to the runner.”

FUMBLES

Once a play has begun, the player that holds the ball is called the runner.  The runner can be one of three people:  (1) the quarterback, until he hands off, or throws the ball to, another player, or if he is keeping it and running down the field himself; (2) the player, usually the running back, that the quarterback hands the ball to; or (3) the player, a wide receiver or tight end, to whom the quarterback throws the ball.

A fumble occurs when the runner drops the ball before he is tackled. **  Any player can try to get the ball by diving on it or picking it up.  A fumble is “lost” if a defensive player gains control of the ball, thus earning possession for his team.  A fumble is “recovered” if a player on offense, either the runner or another player, gains control of the ball, retaining possession for his team.

Sound simple, right?  It usually is.  However, a couple of rules make the issue more complicated.  Under the rules, a runner is tackled or “down” when one or both of his knees touches the ground and he had been touched by a defensive player (in the NFL, if a player stumbles on his own, he can get back up and keep running; this is not the case in college).  Fumbles are often challenged or reviewed when there is a question of whether the runner was down before the lost the football.  If he lost the football after one of his knees hits the ground, there is no fumble. 

Another rule you will hear often is that the ground cannot cause a fumble.  It’s hard to explain what this means; it’s one of those you’ll-know-it-when-you-see-it situations.  Generally, though, if a runner is being brought down, or has fallen, there is no fumble if he held onto the ball and it is only from hitting the ground that the ball came loose and out of the player’s grip.  This is also often the subject of review.

*The standards for a catch and pass interference are the same for both the offense and the defense, and will be explained in a later post.

**I should distinguish a “fumble” from a “muff.”  A muff occurs when a player unsuccessfully tries to get possession of a loose ball.  Therefore, the player hasn’t even had the ball yet.

The Defense: Linebackers and Defensive Linemen

Today’s lesson is your formal introduction to the defense.  I’ve been putting this off because it seems so much easier to describe the offense.  The goal of offense and how it meets that goal are obvious:  it wants to score points and it does that by moving the ball forward down the field.  While the defense may just seem like a bunch of guys trying to react to what the offense does and stop the player with the ball, there is much more to it than that.

In fact, the defense has three goals:

1.       Keep the offense from scoring;

2.       Gain possession of the ball (i.e., take the ball from the offense); and

3.       Score.  That’s right; the defense can score points.  I will leave that for a later discussion.

Even though it doesn’t know what plays the offense will run (although it may have suspicions based on the situation and which offensive players are of the field), the defense still has its own plays that govern what its players will do. 

As with my post on the offensive line and quarterback, I will first focus on those players that begin each play at, or just behind, their side of the line of scrimmage (LOS): the defensive linemen and the linebackers.  I describe these positions in the context of a basic defensive formation, called the 4-3 defense, to illustrate how these players are used on the field.  Coaches use the 4-3 defense because it gives the players flexibility to adjust their positions based on the offense’s formation.  Both runs and passes are well covered, so it is up to the players to match their speed and strength with the offense. 

Defensive Linemen

Position:  Before the snap of the football and the start of the play, the defensive linemen (DLs) are positioned facing the offensive linemen on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage.  The DLs are typically squatting in a three- or four-point “stance,” with both feet and either one or both hands on the ground.  If there are three or five defensive linemen in a play, the nose tackle will line up across from the center; next to him are the left and right tackles; and on the other side of the tackles are the left and right defensive ends (or just “ends”).  In the 4-3 defense, however, there is no nose tackle; only the tackles and ends. 

Responsibilities:  In general, the responsibilities of the DLs are: (1) to rush, or put pressure on, the quarterback, disrupting his ability to execute the play; and (2) stop running plays, by tackling the runner as close to the LOS as possible (or, better yet, behind it for a loss of yards).

Linebackers

Position:  The linebackers (LBs) are positioned behind the DLs, within five yards of the LOS.  In the 4-3 defense, there are three linebackers:  right, middle and left.  So, can you see why it’s called the 4-3?  There are four defensive linemen and three linebackers.  The remaining four players on the field make up the secondary and their roles will be described in a future post.  Linebackers are typically in a “two-point” stance; that is, with no hands on the ground.

Responsibilities:  The LBs have the same responsibilities as the DLs: to pressure the quarterback and defend running plays.  However, because the 4-3 allows the defensive linemen to carry out these functions as well, LBs are also able to drop back further from the LOS and try to disrupt passes from the quarterback to his receivers. 

The defensive players are not subject to the false start penalty like offensive players.  The purpose of the false start penalty is to prevent the offense from moving in a way that makes the defense believe that the play has started.  This would cause the defense to move forward across the LOS, committing one of a variety of penalties themselves.  Since the defense has no prohibition on moving before the snap as long as it stays on its side of the LOS, you will often see one or more LBs and DLs shifting positions and stepping up to and back from the LOS.  This is either because they are making adjustments based on the offense’s formation, trying to make the OLs flinch and commit a false start penalty, or just trying to intimidate the quarterback and the rest of the offense.

When the play starts, the DLs, and those LBs who are rushing the QB on that play, will advance toward the line of scrimmage.  When a defensive player makes contact with an offensive lineman or other player, they try to break past that player to pursue the quarterback or the runner (the player with the ball).  There are three legal ways to do this:  (1) use brute force to push the offensive player back from the LOS; (2) jam the offensive player and try to go around him, usually with a spin move; or (3) use a “swim” technique to ward off the player’s hands and push through the line of humanity in front of him.

Though most people are watching on the quarterback and the ball when a play is going on, try every once in a while to focus on the battle going on in the “trenches” between the offensive and defensive lines.  This is truly where the majority of physical struggle is taking place and you’ll wonder why they willingly get up and do it all over again just a few seconds later.