Negating down by contact for the Conner run.

What would have constituted a football move so that on the run where Conner is ruled down by contact at the half yard line and not given the TD, what would have established that he was under his own power and not brought down by the opposing player? I know it is a moot point after the fact but I want to know what it would have taken for them to say he established himself again then maybe stumbled and could break tha plain by rolling and not be considered down.

 

If he was touched in any way that made the refs believes the contact led to him going down, then he's down by contact. If he was touched on the way down (even if going down on his own and not due to contact by a defensive player) then he's considered down. If he is on the ground and gets touched or touches a defensive player, then he's down.

A football move has nothing to do with a runner. A football move is a term used to determine what's a catch and what's not.

 

but if he is hit maintains his balance and moves say three yards and then his forward momentum takes him down does that negate down by contact? You can argue that the hit brought him down but he continued after the hit stumbled and then went down. What Im getting at is like a Sayers, Sanders, Peyton type effort where does the contact stop and he has reestablished himself?

 

He has to fully regain his balance and keep on going for it to not be down by contact. He did not regain his balance. It is possible the ball had broken the plane before he was down, but that was the only possible grounds for a reversal.

 

He needs to stop stumbling and show that he has regained his balance. There's no magic number of yards where this happens, it's all subjective. If he gets his, stumbles for 10 yards then goes down, he's down by contact. If he gets hit, stumbles for 2 yards, regains his balance and runs for 5 yards before tripping on his own feet, then he's not down by contact.

You can stumble for 100 yards and still be down if you never regain balance. It's all about the act of going down. Did the contact with the defender cause him to lose his balance and eventually go down? If he trips on his own feet while stumbling, he'll be down because the defender caused the stumble which led to him tripping.