I was scared shatless when I thought Ross downed us at the 1 yard line.
Originally Posted by: Gaycandybacon
He came close to doing that. The ball isn't out-of-bounds until it touches something out-of-bounds (similar to it's not in the end zone until it's touched something in the end zone).
If the receiving team touches it before it goes out of bounds, we get the ball where it goes out. So, if Ross had touched it before it hit the ground out-of-bounds, it would have been our ball at the 1.
And he came really close to doing that. He touched it simultaneous with it hitting the ground, leaving it up to the ref's judgment.
He needed to be over there in case the ball did not go out of bounds (because it's a live ball once it's crossed 10 yards), but once it was going to bounce out of bounds there was NO reason at all to touch that ball.
I tried to make that point yesterday during the chat, but did not do a very good job of it.
I think Z2C has it posted in our links section, but for those interested here's the link to the NFL Rulebook:
http://www.nfl.com/rulebook There's a downloadable PDF version, which you can search.