PHI@TEN: Pylon plowover

It happens all the time: To avoid a tackler, a ballcarrier aiming for the end zone runs wide — so wide that he lands out of bounds and misses the end zone entirely. But, because in the process he hits an out-of-bounds field marker, a pylon, he is awarded a touchdown. Does this make sense? Not even close. Yet this is how such a play is judged in pro and college football.

Here, when guard Peter Skoronski (77) whiffs on his block, Tennessee’s Cam Ward elects to run extra wide to try and avoid Philadelphia linebacker A.J. Epenesa (57). He winds up out of bounds, never touching the end zone. But because he runs into the magical pylon, he gets six points. We find that outcome to be . . . so strange. Hocus Bogus Rating: 4.5

MIA@SF: Extra-wide end zone

Like Cam Ward in the previous example, here San Francisco’s Harvard-educated Kyle Juszczyk cannot avoid a tackler as he aims for the end zone. So he shrewdly avoids the end zone entirely, skipping airborne over the goal line before landing out of bounds. He knows he’s getting six points anyway.

This is what we call an airspace touchdown, a cheap score where ballcarriers are not required to touch the designated scoring area, just float over it. To us this is unfair to the defense, forcing players to defend an end zone that conveniently becomes wider that 53 1/3 yards when ballcarriers hop over the goal line and exploit the break-the-plane rule. Rough stuff. Rating: 4

NO@BAL: Is he in or not?

Is this not ridiculous? Two minutes are spent trying to decide whether or not the Saints’ Tyler Shough broke the Great Invisible Plane during his quarterback plunge. No one in the broadcast booth, Spero Dedes, analyst Adam Archuleta or rules interpreter Gene Steratore, thinks this should be a touchdown.

We agree with that. All anyone knows for sure is Shough never reached the end zone. The defense won this joust. We also agree with Dedes’ reaction when referee Clete Blakeman announced that the on-the-field touchdown  ruling was upheld: “Wow.” Rating: 5

SEA@AZ: Is he in or not, pt. 2

Similar to the Tyler Shough play previously noted, Seattle tight end A.J. Barner, attempting his “Bardyard” surge from near the goal line, does appear to break the plane with his upper body, but we see no evidence that he made actual contact with the end zone. We believe a touchdown should only be awarded when a ballcarrier makes contact with the end zone while the ball breaks the plane. Reviews would be much shorter if that was the case. Rating: 3.5