Clemson called a passing play off of a reverse for wide receiver Artavis Scott, but when nobody was open, he tossed the ball out of bounds. Many were surprised when the resulting pass was ruled to be intentional grounding.
Clemson got called for intentional grounding on this reverse thanks to a little-known rule quirk
This was actually the right call, even if it didn’t seem like it to non-referees.
Our general understanding of the intentional grounding rule is that if a quarterback inside the tackle box throws a pass to nobody, it’s intentional grounding. But if the QB gets outside the tackle box, they can throw the ball away, so long as the pass crosses the line of scrimmage.
Here, Scott was clearly outside the tackle box. He was dang near the sideline. Shouldn’t he have been allowed to throw the ball away?
It turns out the exemption allowing quarterbacks to toss the ball away once they escape the tackle box only applies to quarterbacks. Only the player who receives the snap can avoid intentional grounding by leaving the tackle box. If you take a handoff or backward pass, you’renot allowed to throw the ball away.
It’s a weird quirk. This is why running backs about to lose a ton of yardage can’t just throw the ball away to save yardage. Scott probably had no idea this was the case -- it’s possible nobody on Clemson did, since it’s such a rarely-seen call -- and thought he was making a smart play to save his team yardage.
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