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

[mccombmike]

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.

I think the rule is in place to prevent teams from downing the ball with a second left. A few years ago there was an LSU-Texas A&M game where A&M was able to snap the ball and down it when there was about 2 seconds on the clock. That is pretty silly -- you can't snap a ball and spike it in 2 seconds. So the league has this rule to keep that kind of nonsense from happening.

The NBA's clocks are ridiculous. The idea that a time keeper can accurately stop a clock with 0.7 seconds left is just plain dumb. People don't have reflexes that fast. A timekeeper simply can't see a ball blown dead and stop the clock with a 0.1 second accuracy. Can't be done.

Its a weird rule, but actually I like it. It would be even dumber if refs were watching the replays trying to decide if a ball touched the ground in 1 second or not. And if it is one second, how does a ref spot the ball, blow the whistle to start the clock, and the center hike the ball in a second? Can't be done. Let's not ever go down that rabbit hole.

 

[dbg]

Article 9 of Section 3 (Reviewable Rulings) Note 2 says: “(2) An on-field ruling that time expired during or after the last play of any half, or of an overtime period in the preseason or regular season, or of an overtime half in the postseason, is reviewable by the Replay Official only when the visual evidence demonstrates that the clock should have stopped with two or more seconds remaining.”

as I understand it, this is to account for the delay in the official starting the clock at the beginning of the play so they don’t also have to also review when he started the clock creating even more issues.

 

[GW93]

If Ridley had gone out of bounds right after making that catch, Falcons would have had their 2 seconds.

and if we had just tackled Ridley after he made that mistake, instead of letting him eventually get out of bounds, the Falcons never would have thrown that Hail Mary.

 

[CaliforniaSaintsFan825]

All I know is the clock operator should get the game ball.

 

[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.

Lol, @Merl doesn't like the truth.

 

[tinman]

W/only 1 second there is NO chance to get the ball into play. Waiting for the ref to place the ball, the clock starts immediately & there's no time for a snap.

 

[bigdaddysaints]

It happened just as the rule in the book was written. you may not like the rule, but it was correctly called.

 

[Paul]

W/only 1 second there is NO chance to get the ball into play. Waiting for the ref to place the ball, the clock starts immediately & there's no time for a snap.

I thought the game clock starts at the snap after an incomplete pass.

Anyway, I’m only going to mention the Falcons on the 28th day of each month at 3 pm until next season starts because they are irrelevant.

 

[26ISTHEMAN]

Saints win. Reasoning not required. Get back to me when it works against us.

 

[JustaSharkie]

Time is a construct and there is no spoon.

 

[AARPSaint]

It seems a bit similar to the case when delay of game isn't called after the play clock expires if the snap takes place within a second. That happens fairly often and I believe at least once on Sunday. These rules seem to allow for reaction time.

 

[Bill]

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?

The rule doesn't make sense and should be changed. Even though the replay clearly showed a second on the clock when the ball hit the turf, there is no provision made to determine when the whistle actually blew the play dead. As a result, the rule states that when the call on the field happens within 2 seconds of having the time expire, it (the call in question) is not open for a review. Yes, the ref may have sounded his whistle immediately upon seeing the ball hit the turf, but maybe not. Since the clock operator starts & stops the clock based solely on the sound of the whistle, it is impossible to know if he (the clock operator) should have allowed the time to expire or not.

Obviously in this instance it worked to our favor, but it would have been hard to see that happen if we were on the other side of that call. While I understand the reason for the rule, I can also understand how the video evidence alone should be enough to know that one more play should have been allowed. Rules are rules even if they are dumb.

 

[hankster2]

If you wanted to review the end of the game with less than 2 seconds left, I'd also want you to review when the clock was started with respect to the ball being snapped.

There's more than one variable there and I'd guess that's part of the reasoning behind the 2 second rule.

 

[SoggyBottomBoy]

The technology is available to get this right. The camera showed a second left when it hit the ground. But then, do you also go back to the snap and see if the clock was started on time. OMO, If there is a fraction of a second on the clock, that should be still enough to run another play.

The only thing I see that has wiggle room is if stopping of the clock relies on a visual of a ref waiving it dead. In that case, the game was over. But that 2 second rule is odd.

 

[Bill]

The technology is available to get this right. The camera showed a second left when it hit the ground. But then, do you also go back to the snap and see if the clock was started on time. OMO, If there is a fraction of a second on the clock, that should be still enough to run another play.

The only thing I see that has wiggle room is if stopping of the clock relies on a visual of a ref waiving it dead. In that case, the game was over. But that 2 second rule is odd.

I hope we never start using basketball clocks to end football games. Those final 15 minutes from the last 2.169 seconds left like they do on the hardwood would make me go crazy!