IND@CAR: Need a little elbow room

Indianapolis cornerback Jaylon Jones (40) does his job. He pushes Carolina’s DJ Chark wide of the end zone, causing him to land out of bounds, with his left elbow flattening the pylon.

Pylons, of course, are positioned entirely out of bounds. Yet the NFL Rulebook claims they are part of the end zone, making this effort somehow worthy of six points. Chark may have also been given credit for breaking the Great Invisible Plane, which to us is another baffling breach of logic.

Ultimately, he never made contact with the end zone. It’s another no-touch touchdown. It reflects a strange rule-making rationale we have in place in football for far too long. Hocus Bogus Rating: 3.5

NYG@LV: A goal line offertory

As Raiders running back Josh Jacobs more or less tiptoes toward the goal line, his arms are outstretched above his head, kind of like he is approaching the deities in striped shirts with an offering clutched in his supplicating hands. We figure Jacobs is simply hoping to get credit for placing the ball on the end zone’s invisible airspace altar and walk away with a gift of six points.

Giants’ linebacker Bobby Okereke (58) seems unimpressed and whacks the ball out of Jacobs’ hands. Jacobs did briefly reach the ball into the end zone’s airspace, but did his feet ever contact the end zone? We see no evidence of that. It’s just another no-touch end zone wave-over that isn’t worth the six points that the refs dished out. Rating: 3.5

LAC@NYJ: Light on his feet

The Chargers’ Austin Ekeler (30) clearly breaks the plane on his slow grind toward the end zone, but New York’s C.J. Mosley (57) and lineman Quinnen Williams (95) keep him from ever contacting the designated scoring area. 

An airspace touchdown? By the existing rule, yes. Truly worthy of six points? Not, we believe, if you cannot actually contact the end zone.  Rating: 3.5

If you enjoy mysteries, here’s a good one. (Just stick around until the end.) The sideline — that six-foot-wide expanse of white paint that frames every pro football field — is out-of-bounds territory. No one questions that.

If that is the standard — no points are awarded if the ball carrier, en route to the end zone (or one of its pylons or its Great Invisible Plane) makes even minor contact with the sideline — how did Green Bay Jaylen Reed get credited for a touchdown against Atlanta during Week 2?