Illegal Forward Pass

[Hornetcoach]

Ok, the offensive team completes a long pass, the receiver attempts to lateral downfield but it is forward making it an illegal forward pass.  The penalty says five yards from the spot and a loss of down, but the yardage, even after the assessment, is enough yardage for the first down.  What down is it?

[Impartial_Observer]

Two things:

1: I have been charged with traing a group of high schoolers to officiate youth Football games. Rule 2 is on the agenda for Wednesday night. Rule 2 for those who don’t know is titles “Definitions”. One of the items in Rule 2 worth noting is there is a definition for a “forward” pass and a “backward” pass but there is no definition for a “lateral”. Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine. 
 

2. If the line to gain after the penalty enforcement is gained it will be 1st down. If the line to gain was not reached after enforcement it will be loss of down. So if the play happened on 3rd down it will now be 4th down. A new series can not start on any down other than 1st.