[blitzingback]

not arguing here. just curious bc u seem to have the info lol. but what about rugby style kicks? its essentially a run/punt option. by the way i understand ur explanation, even in that case, if the punter is in that option, couldnt he just hold the ball until the point of contact then make like he is punting at the last possible second? itd be a dumb decision bc theres a pretty high chance that itd get blocked, but for the sake of this argument...lol

Just like on roll out passes you almost have to have someone “push” the punter to kick the ball the same as pushing a QB to throw instead of tucking and running. If the punter punts the ball he had turned into a kicker and protected in that process. Like you said you can take a chance on drawing a roughing call but most of the time if the defender gets that close and the punter hasn’t timed his steps up, he takes a chance of the defender getting a piece of the ball and blocking it. The rugby option really does take one, maybe two blockers out of the return just to make sure the ball is kicked.