Time Elapsing After an Offensive Penalty

[Husker John]

Texas vs. Nebraska

2:04 left in the game, a pass is complete for a first down for Texas. The receiver is called for offensive pass interference. The penalty is assessed. Texas takes a delay of game penalty. When the third down play is replayed, the clock reads 1:34 and the clock was not running at the time.

The original pass play was a five step drop and took only 6-7 seconds to run. Should the clock have been stopped following the original third down play? Or, should it have restarted following the first penalty being assessed? If so, why?

[TXMike]

The pass was complete and the receiver was tackled in bounds right? The clock would have been restarted on the ready for play whistle even though there was a penalty for OPI (which was debatable and may be the subject of another discussion). After the delay by Texas, the R would have been right in not restarting on the ready for play since time was a factor and it could be argued Texas was trying to unfairly consume time.

[Husker John]

Yes the pass was complete, and the receiver was tackled in bounds. As far as the PI goes, because I was in the stands, I did not see a replay to determine whether the PI was correct. I do know that the official making the call made in front of the Tx bench. I assume that he must have felt correct in his call because it definitely was not a favorable decision on that side of the field.

In what may be interesting but irrelevant information, Nebraska had used time-outs to stop the clock on the previous play. So, in replaying the down, this eliminated the effectiveness of Nebraska's timeout. Am I seeing this clearly?

Also, I am interested in officiating in high school games. How do I become find out more information? I live in Omaha.

[FR]

Didn't see the game, but assuming that Texas was ahead, then it sounds like the Referee properly invoked 3-4-3 to start on the snap.

[TXMike]

If you want to ref the 1st thing you need to know is that any official who hesitates to make a call that goes against the team who's sideline he is on is not going to last long. Just because he made the call against Texas does not make it right. I was in the car and listening on radio so did not see it.

Nebraska has a website you can start with:

http://www.nsaahome.org

[Husker John]

Tx Mike,

I completely agree with the hesitation comment. I did not mean to imply that because it went against Texas that I felt it was right. Like I said, I did not see the contact. On the play the Nebraska Cornerback was on the ground (don't know how he got there). I spoke to friends immediately following the game that saw the broadcast and they said the replays didn't show much of the contact.

I think the reason there was "hesitation" was that the official that made the call was up the sideline and had to come towards the location of the infraction to make place the flag. In any case though, he was very late in calling that penalty. If memory serves, the receiver was getting up and celebrating his play when the flag came in.

By the way, the only reason I asked the question was because the time became critical later in the game. Did this call cost NU the game? No way. There were too many things that NU did themselve, NU had missed tackles, balls into their linebackers hands that ricocheted into Tx receivers, two botched field goals, two fourth downs not converted.... And Texas' offense absolutely owned Nebraska's defense in the second half.

In my opinion, unless you have played a perfect game it is unlikely that an officials call would cost you the game and before that could happen the official would have to have been incorrect in their call.

[TXMike]

I think you are right about the late flag because the radio guys at first thought it was a flag for too much celebration.

[BoBo]

If I saw what I think I saw watching the game and replays that night it looked as the side judge on that side went for his flag and went to throw it but may have whiffed in grabbing it. On the replay I swear I see his arm coming forward but no flag the first time. I am sure we have all had this happen before. To me if there is a penalty I do not care how long it takes for the flag to get there as long as it is thrown. Yes he must have defintely been confident in his decision because throwing that on the Texas sideline he knew was going to get an a** chewing from Mack Brown.

[Husker John]

Tx Mike, FR (or anyone else that wants to comment),

Let me try and make another point about this and being a non-professional in this area may point out my inexperience but if the clock is stopped after a delay of game penalty because "time was a factor and it could be argued Texas was trying to unfairly consume time", is not the opposite true in that Nebraska was trying to fairly conserve time by taking a time out and then because of the penalty during the course of the play the clock starts again thereby removing the effect of the time-out?

Does this situation hold for holding penalties, illegal procedure.... I guess this may be one of those areas where the situation is so rare that nobody anticipated the possible situation and the ultimate ramification.

[TXMike]

I may be misunderstanding your point...Are you saying Nebraska took a timeout, clock stopped, then Texas ran a play (clock obviously ran during the play), there was a penalty on that play, and then the clock was restarted after the penalty was dealt with? If so, then there wa sno true harm to Nebraska. They asked for a timeout and got it so they saved some time. But once Texas snaps again, that previous timeout is history. Texas could have just taken a knee and the clock would continue to run. Just because they took a timeout does not mean Nebraska has the right to have no further time consumed.

[Husker John]

I would disagree with your assessment of harm to Nebraska. Nebraska takes the time out immediately following the completion of the second down play. Texas runs the third down play and the penalty occurs.

Due to the penalty against Texas, Texas loses the yards gained and its first down but it gets to run the play clock down further. Their penalty allows Texas to run the play clock down on the replayed third down and then on fourth, where as the timeouts taken would have prevented the clock from winding down prior to the third down.

I understand that the rule may say that the R should start the clock after the enforcement of a penalty against the offensive team but, in this case, Nebraska was harmed by the additional 25 seconds that ran off the clock. Again, it may have been the correct call, but the time left in the game was just as important as the first down.

[TXMike]

If there had not been a penalty then Texas would have a had a first down and been able to run even more clock. The penalty prevented that.

Your argument is pretty novel as I have never heard it made before. If you feel strongly about it you can submit a rule change request to the NCAA. They freely publish the address where such requests can be sent to. It would obviously have more weight if the Nebraska coach made the suggestion since most changes arise from game situations.

[Husker John]

Tx Mike,

I concur with your last statement. It would be a stronger sentiment if people within the establishment wanted the change.

I have scanned through the rules. I found them on NCAA.org and did see that the official properly applied the rule. If I read it correctly, the only time that he could should not restart the clock after a penalty is if the team is in a kicking formation. I could be mistaken on this but I think I read that exception.

This has been a great learning experience for me and provides me with additional source of information. And like is almost always the case, the officials had the call correct.

By the way, I predict that OU will meet Texas for the national title. I am truly hoping this happens.

[TXMike]

With regards to the clock after a penalty whne the team is in a scrimmage kick formation, that only applies to a delay of game penalty. Ex: Texas is preparing to punt and the clock is running. A Texas lineman false starts. The clock is stopped, the yards stepped off, and the clock will be restarted. We do talk about this kind of situation in our clinics and generall speaking, if the officials think the false start (or any other foul for that matter) was done to unfairly consume (or conserve) time, we will not permitthe team to do so. So, if in the example I just gave, the ref determines the false start was done so they could get a new 25 second clock and be able to run 25 more seconds off the clock, then the clock would NOT be restarted. It would be a real stretch to say that the receiver committed offensive pass interference because he did not want the pass to be incomplete and stop the clock. He committed pass interference because he wanted to catch the ball and make the yardage.

[Husker John]

I concur that it would be a stretch that the player would have intentionally committed the infraction to aid his team. I am only talking about the ramifications, under the rules, of this penalty and their effects on both teams.

Does it matter if the penalty is occurs after the play is started? For example, Game situation: 4th down and 2 on Team A's 8 yard line, with 20 seconds left to play, Team A is leading. Team B takes its final time out following the third down play. When play is set to resume, Team A lines up for the kick and player A1 false starts (assume no intent on the players behalf). Is the rule such that the penalty is enforced, half the distance to the goal and the clock starts? Does it matter if the penalty is declined?

Another scenario: Team A has a third down and five on their 35 yard line. The clock is stopped with 50 seconds remaining. Neither team has any time outs and Team A leading. Team A runs a play and gains 6 yards but is called for holding. If I understand the rule, Team B has the option of declining the penalty and giving A the first down. After the chains are set and R signals the ball in play, the clock starts and Team A runs the clock out. The other option for Team B is take the penalty, have it assessed and third down played again. As soon as the R signals ball in play, the 25 second clock can run until a delay of game is called. At this time, penalty assessed and third down ran again, Team A takes a knee and game over. Did I miss anything?

I appreciate the discourse and the education, I just feel at the end of the game the time on the clock and the down and distance are equally important.

I understand that this rule was properly enforced. I also understand that this rule has the potential (see the examples above and the Nebraska / Texas Game) to eliminate the effect of a time-out namely that the team on offense runs down the play clock. Admittedly, this highly unusual and I may take your advice and send in a suggestion to the appropriate organization.

Again, this probably appears as biased griping but it is not. I wanted to understand the rules and how they applied to this situation. Nebraska still had ample opportunities to win this game and should have capitalized on those opportunities but they did not and this cost them the game.