u/SparkMaster360

I know there’s a rule “the game cannot end on a defensive foul” to prevent a team from openly committing penalties to prevent a score in the final moments. I was curious if that applies to kickoffs as well.

An example I’m thinking of would be at the end of the Ravens/49ers Super Bowl, if there was a penalty for say tripping on the Ravens, would the 49ers have been awarded an untimed down, or would that be the game?

I’m not talking about Flacco’s plan to run from the sidelines and tackle a returner which could invoke the unfair act, I’m talking about a Ravens player committing a “normal” penalty to prevent a return and run out the clock.

Curious what games next year everyone here is hyped for. Some nominations:

Ohio State at Indiana

Miami at Notre Dame

Oregon at Ohio State

Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss

Ohio State at Texas

Georgia at Alabama (side note: how is this being played 3 years in a row?)

Oregon at USC

BYU at Utah

Any others?

Weeks 1-8 no one even comes within 2 scores of them. They are regularly putting up over 35 points, with the best offensive effort against them being the Miami dolphins putting up 28 points, and still losing by 21.

Weeks 9-13 suddenly 3 different teams play the Patriots within one score. They nuke the Bills, but are held to under 35 by the Colts, Eagles, and Ravens.

Then they’re held to just 20 by the Jets (I refuse to believe the jets can be good), and in the regular season finale they need to come back against Eli’s giants.

Then the playoffs happens and finally they’re put down by the Giants in the Super Bowl, in whats one of the biggest upsets by the metrics in NFL history to my understanding.

So what the hell happened? How does the team that’s annihilating everyone by 3+ scores stop doing that, and then lose to one of the worst Super Bowl winning teams ever? Did other teams figure something out? Did Brady get cocky? Did Belichick run out of good hoodies?