Question on penalty in Bears game today

[clonedude]

Did anyone else see how the Panthers scored their first TD today?

Bears were punting, a Panthers player calls for the fair catch but gets nailed before the ball even gets there, so there's a flag thrown for interference to make the catch. But, another Panthers player ended up picking up the loose ball and took it all the way for the TD.

So the officials got together and made the correct call and awarded the Panthers with the TD, however, then they also said they would march off the penalty on the ensuing kickoff. This is where I had a problem, and maybe I don't fully understand the rule?

Don't the Panthers have the choice of taking the play OR taking the penalty? If they choose to take the result of the play (TD), then the penalty flag is essentially picked up, right? But they gave the Panthers the TD AND the penalty yards on the kickoff.

Being a Packers fan, I didn't really care one way or the other, I was just wondering at the time if they got that correct or not?

 

[cmjh10]

It was still a live ball, the correct call was made

 

[clonedude]

It was still a live ball, the correct call was made

I know the correct call was made regarding the TD, but should the penalty have still been marched off?

If an opposing defense jumps offsides, a good QB will throw a bomb and see if they can get the TD. Then, if they do get the TD, they just decline the penalty, but if they don't get the TD, they accept the penalty.

In this situation today, they took the result of the play (TD) and then were also awarded the penalty yards. I was just wondering if this was correct in this situation for some reason?

 

[ISUAlum2002]

It was still a live ball, the correct call was made

Right, but the question is about the enforcement of the penalty. Unless they called it a personal foul (I don't think they did), the Panthers should have to choose between taking the result of the play or marking off the penalty yardage and taking the ball at that spot. I think they called kick catch interference, which isn't a personal foul. Interesting, didn't think about that as I was watching.

 

[cmjh10]

Sorry, didnt read all the way through.

Not sure on the actual question though.