Question about the game clock in football

HarryCaray · Oct 11, 2014

I have seen this happen before, and it happened in the Alabama/Arkansas game tonight too. Always wondered about this.

If the clock is running and your team is on offense, and you commit a false start penalty...they mark off the 5 yards, the play clock resets, and the game clock starts running again.

So if a team is leading with the ball and 5 minutes left, why not just run the play clock to a few seconds, commit a false start penalty, rinse and repeat until the game clock expires?

That's what happened in the bama game, although not intentional. Alabama had the ball 3rd down and 1 with like a minute left and play clock at 3. False start penalty, game clock started back up, they ran the play (didn't get the first down), but by this time the game clock was at 35 and they were able to let it expire without even having to punt. Maybe it wasn't an accident...

SECplayer · Oct 11, 2014

You're right. It's something every college coach should think about in the last 60-90 seconds.

I think the NFL realized his and has created a rule to prevent the clock from running in the restart. Pretty sure that happened just a year or two ago.

akphidelt · Oct 12, 2014

Judgement call by the ref. Obviously should be automatic in that situation though. Just like refs stopping the clock in the LSU game and putting it back to 10 sec.

"The referee shall order the game clock or play clock started or stopped whenever either team conserves or consumes playing time by tactics obviously unfair. This includes starting the game clock on the snap if the foul is by the team ahead in the score."

Enfuego · Oct 12, 2014

I've always wondered this as well. It's a weird rule that greatly benefits the offense.

SECplayer · Oct 12, 2014

Yeah. The more I think about it, I think the ref just screwed up in that game.

Redagger029 · Oct 12, 2014

That was a strange game all the way around. Alabama could of easily lost to an unranked Arkansas team.

FairWarning · Oct 12, 2014

Redagger029 said:
That was a strange game all the way around. Alabama could of easily lost to an unranked Arkansas team.

It really was. Bama made all sorts of dumb penalties, all pre-snap. Really looks bad on Kiffin. They would have lost to any other team in the SEC West last night.

theMadMan · Oct 12, 2014

Alabama is completely overrated this year

GoBlue34 · Oct 12, 2014

Arkansas coach asked the ref about it as it was winding down I believe but probably said screw it we aren't going to win anyway.

HarryCaray · Oct 12, 2014

GoBlue34 said:
Arkansas coach asked the ref about it as it was winding down I believe but probably said screw it we aren't going to win anyway.

Hard to believe ARK coach wasn't pissed, was probably just told there was nothing they could/would do about it.

They should have gotten punted to with ~30 seconds left only down 1. Not like they were down 2 possessions.

terps1313 · Oct 12, 2014

Wow missed the game. Im usually all over stuff like this. I thought under 4 minutes or so the clock stopped on any penalty? Maybe in the NFL? Anyways assuming Arkansas was out of TO's?

quantumleap · Oct 12, 2014

SECplayer said:
You're right. It's something every college coach should think about in the last 60-90 seconds.

I think the NFL realized his and has created a rule to prevent the clock from running in the restart. Pretty sure that happened just a year or two ago.

Yeah, isn't there some rule where the penalty results in time being run off the clock?

SECplayer · Oct 12, 2014

quantumleap said:
Yeah, isn't there some rule where the penalty results in time being run off the clock?

I believe the rule states that if you commit an offensive penalty that stops the clock and you have no timeouts under 2 minutes, there will be a ten second runoff. Of course, the opposing coach is supposed to have the option to decline said clock runoff (which Ark would've obviously declined).

Ref screwed up. He didn't think about the 10 second runoff or asking Ark to decline it. He just respotted the ball and started a whole new play clock. The result let Bama run over a minute off the clock without snapping the ball.

Ref screwed up but Ark coaches should have known the rules better and raised hell the second he respotted the ball. Getting the ball back and just completing one or two big plays would be enough to attempt a very long field goal.

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