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Originally Posted by hbk314
First, in the Eagles-Cowboys game, the Cowboys were flagged for delay of game, but it appears the play clock was reset to 25 seconds and not 40. Is there one official in charge of keeping the clock, and, if so, how does a 15 second discrepancy get overlooked? The penalty ultimately didn't hurt Dallas, as they ended up scoring a touchdown a few plays later.
Second, in the Chiefs-Chargers game, KC was lined up to kick a 41-yard field goal with eight seconds left. They ended up missing, but San Diego had seven players lined up on one side of their formation. If that had been observed by the officials it would have been a five yard penalty, correct? It ended up being significant because if KC had gotten to retry from 36 yards out, there's a high probability he makes it with no time left, and it actually would have changed the AFC playoff picture. The way I understand it is that it's a new rule that was likely overlooked. Is it one official's responsibility to look for that, or can anyone call it?
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The video I've seen shows the clock going to 25 but I don't see it running from there. Has anyone seen confirmation it ran from here? On our crew the BJ is primary on the play clock but others watch it as well. I'll check it on many plays as an umpire to see when I got the ball spotted. On most plays it is between 28 and 32. If the clock was set as 25 and then run it would be 13 to 17. That would cause me to take an official's time out because we either did not get the ball set fast enough or the clock would not be set properly.
The league has said they missed the illegal formation foul. Two of the guys are out wide so I wasn't sure if they counted. It sounds like any defensive player on the LOS counted. Did the S and U see this and pass on it because they felt it wasn't significant? Did they just miss it? It's a procedural foul they should get, but it had no impact on the play. There's no guarantee the Chiefs would have made the 36-yarder. Both are fairly automatic for most NFL-level kickers. It's not the first error a crew has made and it won't be the last. It had as much of an impact as several other things that happened in the game (i.e. turnovers, bad coaching decisions, missed routes, bad reads). Officials never want to make mistakes that have an impact on the outcome of the game, but you have to accept the fact this was not the only reason the Chiefs lost this game. The Steelers did plenty of things on their own to finish 8-8 so they can't blame their lack of a playoff spot on this call alone. It's just easy to blame the officials.