Why did clock stop after Allen’s amazing 3rd and 13 run

[Virgil]

19 hours ago, Airseven said:

The run was so amazing time stood still.

 

It made me immediately forgive him for the first half turnovers

[Buffalo_Stampede]

27 minutes ago, BisonMan said:

As others have said, this is really a non-issue. First, there is no benefit to "stop the clock" when the penalty would just give the offense a free down. For example, going Offside intentionally would stop the clock, but it would give the offense the down over, plus 4 yards. If it gave the offense a first down, it's 4 additional downs to run the clock. Most in-play penalties (holding, interference, etc.) also create an automatic first down (again more free plays, more time used). If Ramsey held on the Bills 3rd and 13 to stop the clock, he's a moron. 

 

The situation here is rare when the offense got the first down "legitimately" and the fouls just added additional yards and stopped the clock. The only place this might be a good strategy is if the offense was 3rd and 1 and was the Eagles. You know they're almost automatically going to "tush push" the first down and giving them an additional 4 yards by being Offside helps by stopping the clock. Pretty rare situation. 

 

I do agree that post-play penalties is something to look at. Then the defense already knows the outcome was a 1st down and could draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (i.e. call the ref an #######). I'm actually not sure if those currently stop the clock but competitive teams would have low value players pull that stuff in every game if that did stop it.

There are probably a lot of rules the could have game situational "tweaks" to marginally increase "fairness" like this one. However, making the rules more complicated and more situational doesn't bode well for having better management of games by the refs. More complexity and nuance leads to more mistakes in any situation. The "juice isn't worth the squeeze" to change the rule for this type of somewhat rare situation.

 

Now, fumbling the ball through the endzone....

 

My 2 cents.

It saves the defense 30-40 seconds. It’s a dumb rule and should be changed to give teams the option of running the clock or declining.

 

Luckily it didn’t hurt us but it definitely helped Miami.

 

Imagine if there was 2:30 left when Allen got the first and Miami had no timeouts. Game should be over. Instead the clock stops at 2:30, Bills have to run a play. Miami could get the ball back with 30 seconds or so all because of the rule.

[Shaw66]

Well, I continue to think there are opportunities to game the system.   

 

One problem is the arbitrariness of the time these rules apply.  Why is this rule and the out of bounds rule a 5-minute rule but the 10 second runoff is a 2-minute rule?  If the Dolphins were getting the benefit of the clock stoppage, why not also offer the Bills a 10-second runoff?   

 

I agree with Gunner that the rule probably is designed to give an advantage to the team trying to come back, but why should that be? If my running back gives himself up and passes up chance get more yards so he can keep the clock running, why should my opponent be able stop the clock by committing a penalty? 

 

Whatever. It should be rationalized some way.  If you can stop the clock in the final 5 by going out of bounds, fine.  But committing a penalty?  

[Livinginthepast]

This is another odd rule in a league that is Byzantine already (if you would like a colourful adjective). I also found out on the Sunday that refs can check replay to confirm/rescind penalties but only for the ALL IMPORTANT, illegal man downfield penalty and apparently not for Targeting (like the vicious helmet to helmet hit on Johnson on the goal line right before half time that resulted in a CONCUSSION and 1st and goal for the Bills with a clock stoppage. Or the ridiculous Pass interference on Knox the play before the INT in the endzone. The NFL rules committee and their officials are the worst in sports .

[Tuco]

2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

Well, I continue to think there are opportunities to game the system.   

 

One problem is the arbitrariness of the time these rules apply.  Why is this rule and the out of bounds rule a 5-minute rule but the 10 second runoff is a 2-minute rule?  If the Dolphins were getting the benefit of the clock stoppage, why not also offer the Bills a 10-second runoff?   

 

I agree with Gunner that the rule probably is designed to give an advantage to the team trying to come back, but why should that be? If my running back gives himself up and passes up chance get more yards so he can keep the clock running, why should my opponent be able stop the clock by committing a penalty? 

 

Whatever. It should be rationalized some way.  If you can stop the clock in the final 5 by going out of bounds, fine.  But committing a penalty?  

The reason for the 5-minute rules comes from the evolution of the rules. There was a time, way back when we were young, that the clock stopped for every penalty regardless of when it happened. And it used to stop every time the ball went out of bounds. In an effort to shorten the ever-increasing length of games, changes were made. Now when you go out of bounds before the 5-minute mark the clock only stops until the ball is spotted for the next play, then it starts again. And the clock used to stop every time there was a penalty. They changed the rules to restart the clock after the penalty is assessed and the ball is spotted for play - except in the last 5 minutes. In both cases the 5-minute rule was kept in place for exactly the reasons stated - to keep close games interesting longer.

 

Should it be changed? Probably. It's certainly not the first time a team used a penalty to game the clock. In the below example the rules call for an unsportsmanlike if they did it a third time. I don't know if the same holds true on the defensive side.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsxeWIZnYY

 

And this vid is shared because it's just fun to watch Belly get steamed when the Titans did the same thing to him the next week.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTsvc9pkZ04