Football and rugby are very different games, and even the best rugby teams lose the ball all the time in what you and I would consider fumbles.

Turnovers, aside, rules and spacing also make the ideal unlikely to succeed.

• College rules prohibit offensive linemen from being more than 3 yards downfield when the ball is thrown. It would require off-the-charts timing and precision to pass block until the ball is thrown, then rush down the field to participate in a circus of lateral passes. An offense that relied on open-field lateral passes with the participation of the OL would be constantly flagged for having an ineligible receiver downfield
• Spacing dictates that WRs are separated from each other when downfield, not bunched. As a QB you always want to throw to space; as a ball carrier, you want to run to space. An offense relying on the downfield lateral wouldn’t have much in the way of space. The proximity required to successfully lateral would bring more defenders to the area, and that would effectively destroy downfield passing (what QB in their right mind would throw to the middle of the field if there were 2-3 WRs there and 2-3 defenders in the same area?) You might be able to get around this by using groups of receivers to “rub” defenders, but you’d get called for tons of picks