The explanation for why Seattle was penalized on onside-kick recovery at Washington
There have been 34 onside-kick attempts in the NFL this season, per the Football Database, and just four have been recovered by the kicking team.
That’s an 11.7% success rate, which shows the difficulty in recovering the ball now that kicking teams can’t stack one side of the field.
On Monday night in Washington, the Seahawks thought they had the fifth successful onside kick of the season, but their hopes were dashed because of an illegal formation call.
The Washington Football Team led by eight late in the game, but Seattle scored a touchdown and had a chance to tie with 15 seconds to play. But the Seahawks’ two-point conversion failed.
So they lined up for the onside kick. Can you spot the infraction?
The ball was kicked to the left side of the Seahawks line, but the penalty was because of where Seattle’s Nick Bellore (No. 44) was standing. He was on the wrong side of the hash mark, even though he was standing on the right side of the ball.
Football Zebras explained the penalty.
If Bellore had moved over just a few inches, the Seahawks would not have been flagged.
Washington got the ball and won 17-15. And this shows that football really is a game of inches, right?
