Cowboys' Crazy Punt Block Rule: 'Certainly Something to Look At'

Dallas vice president Stephen Jones says the NFL should re-examine the wacky rule that awarded the Broncos a first down off a blocked punt

It was the craziest blocked kick in a Dallas Cowboys' game since Leon Lett's infamy in the snow, and vice president Stephen Jones doesn't want to see it again.

The Cowboys trailed 16-0 early in the third quarter last Sunday against Denver but had forced a Broncos' punt at the 17-yard line. A sign of life? Maybe. Then Malik Turner came untouched up the gut on the punt and fans were thinking ...

A block ... a touchdown ... a safety ... at the very least, ideal field position in Denver's Red Zone. But, alas, the play wackily ended in a Broncos' first down. Turner, who was so close to punter Sam Martin he could've grabbed the ball off his foot, somehow was only able to have the kick ball deflect off his right hip and go bouncing forward, beyond the line of scrimmage. It was there that Cowboys' rookie Nahshon Wright attempted to field it, only to have it carom off his left shoulder and be recovered by Denver.

"I got about 200 punt blocks on tape over the last 10 years and this is only the third time I’ve seen it. So, very rare play," said Cowboys' special teams coach John Fassel. "Great job by our guys and just unfortunately we couldn’t handle the deflection and they got it. Crazy. Which is too bad because it was a huge play in the game, which I really thought would have put us back in momentum."

Said Wright, "I know shouldn’t have touched it, but I was trying to scoop and score and make a play."

Turner blocks it cleanly and surely Dallas scores some sort of points. Wright makes a recovery and it's likely a touchdown. Instead, it was correctly ruled a muffed punt recovered by the Broncos. They marched for a field goal and increased their lead to 19-0 in what was ultimately a 30-16 win that has at least momentarily derailed the Cowboys' Super Bowl bandwagon.

“That would have been a huge momentum play for us, especially coming in after half time, you have a chance to reset your jaw ... and maybe you do something with that momentum,” said Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who experienced the same play three years ago against the Ravens while coaching Green Bay.

Though the play was ruled correctly by officials, it doesn't mean it's a good rule. Jones addressed it on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan, saying it should be at least re-examined by the NFL's competition committee.

"It's certainly something to look at it again. It's never the intention in the NFL to have something bad happen against making a good play. Obviously, that one's a tough one right there in the traffic, five yards downfield. But, once it crosses the line of scrimmage, then that is the rule. Certainly, it will come up. We'll discuss it at length again and go back through the history of it, why we have it in and is there any reason to discuss changing the rule."

Jones then suggested they could discuss if it makes sense to keep the rule in place but tweak it so that the punting team wouldn't get the ball back unless they advanced the recovered ball past their original line to gain, which didn't occur on Sunday's play.

Some will call it sour grapes. The Cowboys claim it's just common sense.