Question about "forward" pitch for TD..

[Colfaxcyclone]

The toss was caught behind the LOS wasn't it? Can't your linemen be down field if the pass is behind the LOS?

Yes just like the shuffle pass

 

[besserheimerphat]

I believe linemen can go up to three yards beyond the line of scrimmage before they are "illegally down field." It's almost never called from what I've seen.

 

[GrindingAway]

I was at the bar so I could not hear the reasoning.

It was clearly forward, but Boykin was behind the line of scrimmage...so they said it was a shovel pass? If this was the case, there were at least 2 linemen downfield blocking which should have been a penalty for illegal man downfield and negated the TD. Am I missing something?

As mentioned I think as long as the pass is caught behind the line of scrimmage it's ok. I'm also not sure that calling a penalty for illegal man down field is a possible use of replay.

I have no idea how they missed the illegal motion before the play though. It seemed like the qb took a couple strides and the rb moved as well before the snap.

 

[jrios545]

In my opinion, and looking at the game as objectively as I could, I thought that the refs kinda screwed us over quite a bit. Now I'm not a football expert and I watched the replay only once, but to me it looked like the Boykin was definitely past the line of scrimmage (by very little) and the pass was definitely forward. I'd have to watch the replay again though, my eyes could have deceived me.