Did Josh Allen Commit Intentional Grounding To Avoid A Safety By Throwing The Ball Behind His Back?

Josh Allen managed to avoid a safety by throwing the ball behind his back. Was it intentional grounding?

The officiating crew did not throw a flag.

Per NFL rules, the New England Patriots should’ve been granted two points and the ball. The Buffalo Bills got lucky. (But it didn’t matter anyway because they still lost. Ball don’t lie!)

How does the NFL define intentional grounding?

Before we go any further here, we must first establish the rules. Intentional grounding is defined by Rule 8, Section 2, Article 1 of the rulebook. It is a foul that is called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage because of defensive pressure, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion. A penalty is only warranted if:

• The quarterback is inside the pocket.
• The quarterback is actively trying to avoid a loss of yardage
• The quarterback throws a pass.
• There is no eligible receiver in the area when the ball is thrown.
• The pass does not have a realistic chance of being completed to an eligible receiver.
• The quarterback throws the ball into the ground to avoid a sack instead of making a legitimate attempt to throw downfield.
• The passer throws the ball out of bounds from inside the pocket to avoid a sack.

Intentional grounding does not apply if the passer is outside of the pocket and the ball reaches the line of scrimmage. That was very much not the case on Sunday.

Josh Allen threw behind his back to avoid a safety.

The Buffalo Bills, trailing 21-17, had 1st-and-10 from their own 11-yard-line. Josh Allen took the snap, faked the handoff on the play-action and looked to pass. He was rushed by the New England Patriots defense. They closed in on him near the goal line.

Allen had two options. He could either go down and take the sack for a costly safety or try to get rid of the football. He obviously chose the latter. The veteran quarterback somehow managed to throw the ball behind his back toward the line of scrimmage.