Starting and Stopping the Clock

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by Niner

With 12 seconds remaining and the clock running in the 4th quarter, team A runs the ball to B’s 5. They immediately (after the ready of play whistle) line up and the quarterback takes a direct snap and legally spikes the ball to stop the clock; however, a) there is an illegal motion penalty on A on the play, or b) several interior linemen were unable to get set. If B declines the penalties, when do you start the clock and if it expires before A can snap, do you extend. If B accepts the penalty when would you start the clock and if you start the clock and it expires before A can snap the ball, is there an extension?

Both of your penalties are live ball fouls at the snap so you would start the clock based on the results of the play. In this case it was an incomplete pass so the clock would start on the snap in both scenarios.

If the penalties were false starts (which prevented the ball from becoming live), the fact the QB spiked the ball is irrelevant because it technically never happened. The clock was running when the penalties occurred so the clock would run at the RFP. If in the R's judgement A would not have been able to legally get the snap off before the false start, they could run the clock and not allow A to benefit from committing the foul. Also, if B does accept the penalty and the clock runs out, you would not have an extension because the false start did not occur during the last timed down (the down didn't occur).

What a great question to get you thinking about starting and stopping the clock! I think I got it all right but will accept any corrections out there.