The rule stinks. It needs to go. Until it does, however, it’s the rule. And every coach and player in the NFL needs to know the rule and act accordingly.
The rule is that a fumble forward that goes out of bounds in the end zone results in a change of possession, with the defense getting the ball at its own 20. If the ball bounces out at the one-inch line, the offense keeps it. If the ball makes it across the goal line before going out of bounds, the defense gets it.
The rule makes no sense. And with the rule being applied seemingly more often than ever in 2017, maybe the rule will change.
But it hasn’t yet. Which makes Raiders quarterback Derek Carr solely to blame for his doing-too-much-while-trying-not-to-do-too-much effort to soar in to the end zone after he’d already successfully scrambled for a first down on a third-and-three play. It was a high-risk-low-reward maneuver, with Carr straining so hard to do that which he physically is incapable of doing resulting in Carr basically throwing the ball out of the end zone, and giving it to Dallas with 31 seconds left. Game over.
Carr gets paid $25 million per year to play quarterback. Playing quarterback means knowing the rules. So either Carr didn’t know the rules (Marshawn Lynch, based on his 15-yard reaction to the ruling, clearly didn’t know the rule) or Carr consciously decided on the same day that Ben Roethlisberger tried to be Dan Marino to try to be Mike Vick.
Either way, it’s a bad look for a quarterback who isn’t nearly as good in 2017 as he was in 2016. Carr has developed a habit of taking more blame than he should. As to the play that ultimately decided last night’s game, he deserves all of it.
