Just before halftime of Saturday’s FCS championship between North Dakota State and Eastern Washington, EWU scored a key touchdown on a fake field goal.
This FCS championship fake field goal TD was multiple kinds of brilliant
One of the savviest fakes of the year involved Eastern Washington’s holder throwing a pass with his knee on the ground. It was a smart use of the rulebook.
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The Eagles used an unusual design, with the holder catching the snap with a knee on the ground, then shoveling the ball to a pulling blocker, who got the 2 yards he needed. EWU cut a 17-3 deficit to 17-10, giving itself a chance against the dynastic Bison.
A natural question, given that the holder’s knee was on the ground when he caught the ball and passed it forward: How’s that legal?
The short answer: the same way any field goal is legal after a holder catches the ball. All holders have a knee on the ground when they catch a long snap.
The long answer: The rulebook has an exception to its usual dead-ball rules for holders. For starters, yeah, the rulebook says a player is down ...
When any part of the ball carrier’s body, except his hand or foot, touches the ground or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body, except his hand or foot.
So, a holder with his knee down is just down, right? Wrong, because of this exception:
Exception: The ball remains alive when an offensive player has simulated a kick or at the snap is in position to kick the ball held for a place kick by a teammate. The ball may be kicked, passed or advanced by rule.
Eastern Washington was in a scrimmage-kick formation, clearly set up to attempt a field goal. That’s why the play didn’t end as soon as holder Gunner Talkington caught the ball. It’s also why every field goal is allowed to proceed after a holder catches the snap.
That wasn’t the only really smart thing about this design, though.
This kind of fake field goal is unusual. More commonly, the snap goes right to the holder, who flips the ball behind his head to the kicker, who’s looping wide and running toward the pylon. Or maybe the kicker gets the snap and throws to someone running forward into the end zone. There are a handful of different ways to mount this trick play.
EWU did something different. The Eagles had a blocker pull behind the line, like an offensive lineman might do on a counter running play. It was important that the guy catching the shovel pass, No. 89 Jayce Gilder, wasn’t on the line of scrimmage and covered up. That would’ve made him ineligible to catch a forward pass. Defenses are watching for a player on the end of the formation, like Gilder, to run a downfield route on a fake field goal. But they might not be prepared for him to run through his own backfield, as he did here.
The element of surprise was key. NDSU had two defenders shoot into the backfield on the edge of the formation, something meant to contain an outside run. But the Bison weren’t ready for EWU to basically run up the middle. Gilder only needed 2 yards, and he got them.
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