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Originally posted by RamTime
I am a little confused here.
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"In your case, the ball would be returned to the spot of the fumble, and since you were in the last 2 minutes of either 1/2 the clock starts on the snap"
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This seems like it is a way to stop the clock without using a timeout and without getting out of bounds. In other words a ball carrier sees he isn't going to make it OOB however he is close enough to safely fumble the ball before he is down and the ball succesfully makes it out of bounds. the ball is placed at the spot of the fumble and the clock stops as if he actually got out of bounds and does not start until the snap?
That seems wrong.
Is it a judgment call as far as intentional?
It seems there would be a rule (as far as time keeping) covering fumbles that go out of bounds in the final 2 minutes weather they be intentional or not.
This seems more fair to the defense to me.
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If your play happens in under the last two minutes then you would have a 10 second run off. 5 yard penalty from the spott of the foul unless it was behind the LOS. Then it is enforced from the previous spot. The player that fumbles must recover the ball, if not the ball is spotted at the spot of the fumble and the clock will start on the ready.
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[Edited by RamTime on Jul 8th, 2005 at 07:23 PM]
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Ok, change of plan. The timing cheat sheet I got from my organizer of officials says, " clock on snap on Fumble FOOB's" but that is incorrect. After your question RamTime, I looked in more detail in my official NFL rulebook, and it says the following in "timing last two minutes." 4-3-7 exception # 14 says "On a play from scrimmage, if a fumble goes OOB's forward by any player, the game clock stops on the official's time out signal, then restarts on the wind of the game clock signal." (see 7-5-6-note) and the note says "If, on a play from scrimmage, a fumble goes OOB's forward, the game clock is to be stopped but is to be restarted when the ball can be made RFP at the spot of the fumble. If the ball goes OOB's behind the spot of the fumble, game clock is to be stopped and is to be restarted when the ball is snapped for the next down.
So, the only way the offense gets any advantage is if they fumble it backwards OOB's. However, as I stated earlier, an INTENTIONAL fumble is considered a pass, and a backwards pass OOB's will start the clock on the RFP, so only if it is an unintentional fumble which goes OOB's behind the spot of the fumble.
Does that all make sense now? Thanks for questioning it RamTime, now I will correct the error on my timing cheat sheet.