One of the NFL’s most obscure rules could have made an appearance just before halftime of the Thanksgiving Packers-Lions game.
That rule is the fair catch free kick, which allows any team to attempt a field goal after a fair catch, with the kicker getting a running start and without the other team being allowed to try to block it.
With five seconds left in the first half, the Packers fair caught a Lions punt at Green Bay’s 44-yard line. That meant that if they had wanted to, they could have sent their kicker out to attempt a placekick with the Lions unable to block it because they would be required to line up at least 10 yards away. The free kick gives the kicker the opportunity to take any kind of running start he wants, and it allows him to kick with a lower trajectory because he doesn’t have to worry about it being blocked. It would be a 66-yard field goal if it went through the uprights, but it would be much easier than an ordinary 66-yard field goal.
Instead, the Packers ran one offensive play, gaining 11 yards, and then sent kicker Anders Carlson out to attempt a 63-yard field goal. It was a few feet short.
The ability to get a full running start and kick with a lower trajectory is enough of an advantage that a kicker who comes up just short on a 63-yard field goal would probably make a 66-yard free kick. Matt LaFleur may have cost his team three points by not considering one of the NFL’s most unusual rules.
