https://twitter.com/WorldofIsaac/status/780098369628868608
Apparently, this is a thing that can happen. The Green Bay Packers took advantage of one of the NFL’s most little-known rules during their game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. During a kickoff, the ball bounced near the sideline but didn’t quite go out of bounds. So Packers return man Ty Montgomery got out of bounds, laid on his stomach, and touched the football to earn a flag. Uh…what?
As it turns out, there was no officiating blunder or anything like that. We’ll let Mike Pereira explain what happened:
Ty Montgomery made a brilliant play on a kickoff.
Here's why pic.twitter.com/jhJo6zGM9K
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 25, 2016
Green Bay got the ball on its 40 and marched down the field to score a touchdown. As it turns out, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this out of the Packers. Back in 2012, Randall Cobb did the exact same thing.
Randall Cobb did it 2012, as I noted in my book. With the short kickoffs to exploit the new touchback rule, wouldn't doubt this was coached https://t.co/RMFA5Yl7l7
— Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs🇺🇦 (@footballzebras) September 25, 2016
Kickoff-out-of-bounds penalty was covered in my book. Heads-up play to establish ball OOB to get "double touchback"https://t.co/xgyTYKrMzc
— Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs🇺🇦 (@footballzebras) September 25, 2016
This is the definition of a heads-up play, and the Packers deserve a ton of credit for coaching this (unless, of course, Montgomery just knew what to do, then shout out to him). Make sure you remember this for the future, because if NFL teams are like the rest of us, they’re definitely going to exploit this sometime in the near future. Well, as long as the league doesn’t get rid of this rule, first.
