Off. Holding penalty - where is spot of enforcement?

[slice60]

Saw this tonight.1st down, Team A has ball on Team B's 45 yd line. QB hands ball to RB running left. RB makes a backward lateral to WR on a reverse. WR runs around right end & gains 15 yards to Team B 30 yd line. As the play is ending, a penalty flag is thrown also at the 30 yd line-- Offensive Holding is called against a receiver blocking downfield. After several minutes of conversation, the crew decided to mark off the 10 yard penalty with the spot of enforcement from Team B's 45 yd line (the line of scrimmage) instead of from Team B's 30 yd line (the spot of the foul & where the ball carrier was tackled). 

Team A's coaching staff protested loudly but the crew held firm. Next play -- 1st & 20 from Team A 45 yd line. I think it should have been 1st & 5 from Team B's 40.So if the crew was correct, did the backward lateral (as opposed to a simple run play) have an impact on the spot of enforcement?

If the crew was correct, then I have to ask if the rule makes sense??? Let's say Team A has the ball on their own 20 yd line. On a run play, the ball carrier breaks a long run & scores. However, one of the offensive players blocking downfield is penalized for Offensive Holding at Team B's 10 yd line. To me, it makes sense for the spot of enforcement to be Team B's 10 yd line (1st & 10 at Team B's 20) & NOT the line of scrimmage (1st & 20 all the way back at Team A's 10).

 

[Bobref]

47 minutes ago, slice60 said:

Saw this tonight.1st down, Team A has ball on Team B's 45 yd line. QB hands ball to RB running left. RB makes a backward lateral to WR on a reverse. WR runs around right end & gains 15 yards to Team B 30 yd line. As the play is ending, a penalty flag is thrown also at the 30 yd line-- Offensive Holding is called against a receiver blocking downfield. After several minutes of conversation, the crew decided to mark off the 10 yard penalty with the spot of enforcement from Team B's 45 yd line (the line of scrimmage) instead of from Team B's 30 yd line (the spot of the foul & where the ball carrier was tackled). 

Team A's coaching staff protested loudly but the crew held firm. Next play -- 1st & 20 from Team A 45 yd line. I think it should have been 1st & 5 from Team B's 40.So if the crew was correct, did the backward lateral (as opposed to a simple run play) have an impact on the spot of enforcement?

If the crew was correct, then I have to ask if the rule makes sense??? Let's say Team A has the ball on their own 20 yd line. On a run play, the ball carrier breaks a long run & scores. However, one of the offensive players blocking downfield is penalized for Offensive Holding at Team B's 10 yd line. To me, it makes sense for the spot of enforcement to be Team B's 10 yd line (1st & 10 at Team B's 20) & NOT the line of scrimmage (1st & 20 all the way back at Team A's 10).

 

An offensive holding penalty is administered according to the “all but one rule,” which says that all penalties are enforced from the basic spot except one: a foul by the offense behind the basic spot. The penalty for that foul is enforced from the spot of the foul.

The basic spot depends on the type of play. If the foul occurs during a running play, the basic spot is the end of the run. If the foul occurs during a loose ball play, the basic spot is the previous spot. It gets tricky, though, because you can have more than one type of play during a down. 

So, if the foul occurred either before or while the ball was loose during the backward pass, it occurred during a loose ball play and the basic spot is the previous spot, i.e., the 45, regardless of where on the field the foul occurred.

[slice60]

4 minutes ago, Bobref said:

An offensive holding penalty is administered according to the “all but one rule,” which says that all penalties are enforced from the basic spot except one: a foul by the offense behind the basic spot. The penalty for that foul is enforced from the spot of the foul.

The basic spot depends on the type of play. If the foul occurs during a running play, the basic spot is the end of the run. If the foul occurs during a loose ball play, the basic spot is the previous spot. It gets tricky, though, because you can have more than one type of play during a down. 

So, if the foul occurred either before or while the ball was loose during the backward pass, it occurred during a loose ball play and the basic spot is the previous spot, i.e., the 45, regardless of where on the field the foul occurred.

Ok, I think I understand. In this case, the penalty clearly occurred (& the flag was thrown) long after the backward pass. The ball carrier had gained 10+ yards when the holding occurred. So, in this case, the penalty should have been enforced from the spot of the foul/end of the run as they were the same.

That means that this crew was overthinking & mistakenly enforced the penalty from the previous spot because of the backward pass.