Yeah last play you can't just get tackled, gotta fling it back no matter what at that point.
Does anyone know if and when there will be a replay of the game?? Thanks
If the ball touched the ground in the end zone without having been touched by the receiving team it is immediately dead and ruled a touchback. The receiving team still has the option of the illegal touching spot, but obviously in this case they aren't going to take it. Let's say it was original touched by the kicking team at the 25 and muffed into the end zone (odd but possible), the result of the play is still a touchback, but the receiving team would still have the option of taking the ball at the 25, spot of illegal touching.
I had a very strange version of this in one of my games a few years ago. 4th down from the kicking team's own 5-yard line. They are kicking into the wind and it's held up and lands at the kicking team's 40-yard line. As it bounces back a kicking team member touches it at their 38. It ends up on the ground still moving at their 35 where a kicking team member KICKS it! The ball goes about 30 yards downfield. Illegal kicking foul in that case would be enforced 15 yards at the time (10 yards now) from the end of the kick. Since that would be well behind the illegal kicking spot (38) they declined the penalty. We were about to spot the ball there to start the next series when I realized the spot of the illegal kick was also a spot of illegal touching. The series started at the 35 instead since it was a better option for the receiving team. This type of play is why we have to huddle and work through all the facts of a play and combine several different rules together to get the right ruling. If we had started at the 38 nobody probably notices including those grading us. And it's only a 3-yard difference in starting point so not a huge impact to either team. But as an official you feel good when you parse through everything and get to the right answer on the field. Yeah...we're weird like that!
It's OK to not be OK.