The Saskatchewan Roughriders had an interesting play last night against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that prevented kicker Seth Small from attempting 5 field goals during the game. It also had a lot of fans (especially Ti-Cat fans) scratching their head as to what just happened. Let's discuss that;
Kaare Vedvik, a 28-year-old out of Norway, has been with the Riders club for almost 2 seasons now and he has been playing decently well for them. He started last year after legendary CFL/NFL Punter Jon Ryan went down with a season-ending ankle injury and closed out the remaining games. Throughout his career with the Riders, Kaare has punted 123 times for 5,538 yards (45 Avg.) and 4,536 Net yards (36.8 Net Avg.). Last night was a different story.
Before I go any further, I need to explain that neither punter had a good game last night. The wind seemed to really affect the field of play and was a huge deciding factor in Hamilton's win. Vedvik performed especially poorly in my opinion. He punted 8 times for an average of just 30 yards per punt (16 yards lower than his Avg. before this game) and netted a tough 22.8 yards per punt. There was a bright spot though, and it came late in the First Half of play after the Roughriders were unable to convert a 2nd & 18. Kaare Vedvik trotted out onto his own 25 yard line to receive the snap and kicked the ball straight up into the air. The ball only travelled about 15 yards downfield, which goes to show just how rough of a night it had been. It hit the ground about 7 yards past the line of scrimmage and bounced back toward Vedvik. With some quick thinking, Vedvik ran to the ball and managed to pull off the first Dribbled Ball Kick that I have ever seen in the CFL. But wait, what's a Dribble Ball? I'm glad you asked. I didn't even know this was a rule until I heard the Ref try to explain what happened during the play.
By definition a dribbled ball occurs when the ball is kicked while not in possession or control of a player. i.e. a loose ball following a kick from scrimmage. Such a dribbled ball may be touched by the kicker or an onside player without penalty.
When Vedvik ran at the ball he managed to kick it 3 yards from the line of scrimmage and had it bounce off the shoulder of a Ti-Cat defender. A Roughrider defender then came back and recovered it for the team. Because the Punt had managed to cross the line of scrimmage (just barely might I add), only an onside roughrider is allowed to kick it. That would include Vedvik.
While nothing came from the recovered dribbled ball (there was only 00:01 left in the half) I wanted to shed some light on the situation. Hopefully, I explained it in a way you're able to understand because I was certainly confused when the ruling was explained on the field. Unfortunately for Vedvik, Coach Dickenson (who was a kicker in college), was seen on the sidelines giving him an earful after the punt.
Thank you for making it this far in my article! Please make sure to let me know what you think. -Big Ups to everyone on Twitter who continues to post great Specialist content. -
I couldn't do it without you :)
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