Stopping the clock

[White hat9]

If you want to know what happened, here it is.

R awards the TO because he could tell there was .2 sec left. Because there is no way to run the clock down to 0:00.2 and stop it, they run a play with no time, although both coaches were informed what was going on, so that's not a big deal.

Team A throws the ball into the endzone where a defender bats it down, right into the arms of a receiver. Touchdown. PAT good, Overtime. There the team that was ahead on that last, disputed play, ended up winning.

Personally, I say game over. Football, unlike basketball, does not stop on the whistle, so blowing the whistle is not key to it, from my point of view.

Also, we view the field clock as official unless there is a problem, then it will be kept on the field. There was no clock on the field that night, although the field clock was being run by an official.

To expand my point. The delay of a second or two is part of the game on every other play. Like a holld on the last play should be a hold on the first, so too is the running of the clock. Secondly, there is only one stadium in my area with a clock on both ends of the field. If this play had happened any other way, the R would not have known there was 2 tenths of a second left when the TO was requested and the game would have been over.

My biggest concern, however, is that the rule book does not address it. If NFHS rules one way or the other, I'm OK with it. I'd just like to see it in there.

[Edited by White hat9 on Dec 30th, 2002 at 03:13 PM]