Can someone explain the reasoning behind the game ending with 1 second left on the slow motion replay clock. (1 Viewer)

[SaintTupelo]

I heard something about there has to be 2 seconds for replay to put time back on the clock. My guess is the reaction time of the ref seeing the ball hit the ground and signaling incomplete is 1 second. So when the ball, in slow motion, hit the ground with 1 second remaining, is allowed to run down to 0. Anybody have the actual reasoning?

 

[SaintsIn2009]

Yea, I'd like to know too. Your explanation makes sense tho. I mean, isn't 1 second a unit of time and shouldn't that team be able to use that amount of time to attempt one more play? If it was against the Saints, I'd have been yelling bull malarkey.

 

[LUX]

I heard something about there has to be 2 seconds for replay to put time back on the clock. My guess is the reaction time of the ref seeing the ball hit the ground and signaling incomplete is 1 second. So when the ball, in slow motion, hit the ground with 1 second remaining, is allowed to run down to 0. Anybody have the actual reasoning?

I'm not familiar with this rule, but I'm glad it ended that way. Had the ball not been juggled for a few seconds, Atlanta would have had another shot at it and penalties on the defensive side wasn't helping the game.

 

[black_floyd]

It's a chickenshirt rule that miraculously favored us rather than going against us as usually seems to be the case. They said there's a rule that in order to challenge and subsequently put time back on the clock (in a situation where the clock had run to 0:00) that there needs to have been at least 2 seconds left on the clock when they review the play.

Since the review only showed 0:01, we benefited from having to defend one fewer play than we would have had they been using rules that actually made sense.

 

[Saint Kamara]

I heard something about there has to be 2 seconds for replay to put time back on the clock. My guess is the reaction time of the ref seeing the ball hit the ground and signaling incomplete is 1 second. So when the ball, in slow motion, hit the ground with 1 second remaining, is allowed to run down to 0. Anybody have the actual reasoning?

You do realize the game clock is controlled by a HUMAN BEING? One that is capable of making a mistake as they did here. I'm shocked that it happened to hurt the home team, that is almost never the case.

The 2 second rule is silly, but I guess it was put in place for more egregious game clock mistakes, not one that you have to argue about a solitary second being put back.

 

[Pensacola]

It's a chickenshirt rule that miraculously favored us rather than going against us as usually seems to be the case. They said there's a rule that in order to challenge and subsequently put time back on the clock (in a situation where the clock had run to 0:00) that there needs to have been at least 2 seconds left on the clock when they review the play.

Since the review only showed 0:01, we benefited from having to defend one fewer play than we would have had they been using rules that actually made sense.

And because the Refs had already given the dirty birds there maximum amount of BS calls in a 60 minute game!

 

[black_floyd]

And because the Refs had already given the dirty birds there maximum amount of BS calls in a 60 minute game!

But it's against the Saints so they'd usually not be confined to traditional BS call limits. We somehow got lucky enough for them to use a lil KY today.

 

[Pensacola]

But it's against the Saints so they'd usually not be confined to traditional BS call limits. We somehow got lucky enough for them to use a lil KY today.

Well yea, your right about that! If they can screw us in front of the whole world in the NFCCG, there’s definitely NO LIMITS!

 

[Noble Saint]

In years past, in most sports that keep time like basketball and football, you have to allow the scorekeeper time to react to the referee’s signal to stop the clock. The ref has to be allowed time to react as well as the person in charge of the clock. There is an extra second or two runoff that shouldn’t be on dozens of plays every game. 2 seconds would be more than a reasonable amount of time to get the clock stopped. They explained the rule correctly, but did a poor job of explaining why the rule exists.

 

[Stalwart385]

Just my guess.

Since there is no millisecond counter you can't track exactly how much time was left with only a 1 showing. You could end up adding almost a second to the game. With 2 seconds showing you know there was at least 1 full second left.

 

[HouseCall]

This is how I heard it explained and while it’s odd, it makes some sense.

Basically since NFL clocks don’t have tenths of seconds - a clock showing 1 actually represents less than a second. By the time the display shows the 1 digit - there are less than 10/10ths.

Since you can’t know if there are 9/10ths or 5/10ths or 1/10th on the clock from a whole digit display - the league ruled that only whole digits can be put back on the clock.

So therefore there must be at least 2 seconds displayed for time to be added on the clock - because 2 represents at least 1 and 9/10ths of a second - so there is still an unexpired whole second.

The simple fix is to install clocks that display 10ths. But that’s too easy. So we have this strange rule.

 

[Saint Kamara]

This is how I heard it explained and while it’s odd, it makes some sense.

Basically since NFL clocks don’t have tenths of seconds - a clock showing 1 actually represents less than a second. By the time the display shows the 1 digit - there are less than 10/10ths.

Since you can’t know if there are 9/10ths or 5/10ths or 1/10th on the clock from a whole digit display - the league ruled that only whole digits can be put back on the clock.

So therefore there must be at least 2 seconds displayed for time to be added on the clock - because 2 represents at least 1 and 9/10ths of a second - so there is still an unexpired whole second.

The simple fix is to install clocks that display 10ths. But that’s too easy. So we have this strange rule.

So when is there no time left on the clock?

9/10 of a second?
1/10 of a second?
Or when it literally goes to all 0s?

 

[black_floyd]

sheet, the NBA implemented tenths of a second 30 years ago but then again basically every aspect of that league is run better than the NFL.

 

[Stalwart385]

So when is there no time left on the clock?

9/10 of a second?
1/10 of a second?
Or when it literally goes to all 0s?

Looking at it from the other side. If there is 1/10th left should you add 9/10ths back to the game?

 

[Saint Kamara]

Looking at it from the other side. If there is 1/10th left should you add 9/10ths back to the game?

And I think that's what happens in a lot of cases, it's never a full second, it's some fraction of a second left, and in some cases it was probably barely holding on with only 1/10 of a second left in the game.

If I had to guess, there was at least 7/10 of a second left when that ball hit the ground.