Game clock questions..

Brandon

Cheesehead
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
250
Reaction score
26
Why is it that the game clock doesn't completely stop until the next play is ran when a player goes out of bounds? It stops temporarily, but before the next play is ran the game clock will begin ticking again. The only time I notice the game clock completely stopping when a player goes out of bounds is inside of 2 minutes in both halves.

Is this a rule? Seems like a weird rule to me if that's the case, because if there's 7 minutes in the 4th quarter and you're behind by 2 touch downs, it's pivitol the clock remains stopped as long as possible. I mean think about it, when there's an incomplete pass thrown at ANY point during the game, the game clock stops until the next play is ran. But outside of the 2 minute warning it seems random when the clock starts going again when a player goes out of bounds, because it will stop for a moment but before the team even huddles up it starts ticking again.

Always found that strange.
 
D

Deleted member 6794

Guest
Why is it that the game clock doesn't completely stop until the next play is ran when a player goes out of bounds? It stops temporarily, but before the next play is ran the game clock will begin ticking again. The only time I notice the game clock completely stopping when a player goes out of bounds is inside of 2 minutes in both halves.

Is this a rule? Seems like a weird rule to me if that's the case, because if there's 7 minutes in the 4th quarter and you're behind by 2 touch downs, it's pivitol the clock remains stopped as long as possible. I mean think about it, when there's an incomplete pass thrown at ANY point during the game, the game clock stops until the next play is ran. But outside of the 2 minute warning it seems random when the clock starts going again when a player goes out of bounds, because it will stop for a moment but before the team even huddles up it starts ticking again.

Always found that strange.

The rule states that the clock starts running again on the referee's signal after a player gets out of bounds aside of the last two minutes in the first half and last five minutes in the second half.
 
OP
OP
Brandon

Brandon

Cheesehead
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
250
Reaction score
26
The rule states that the clock starts running again on the referee's signal after a player gets out of bounds aside of the last two minutes in the first half and last five minutes in the second half.

Well that explains that then, never knew that was an actual rule. Always catch myself yelling at my TV when the player goes out of bounds and I see the clock start running not even 10 seconds afterwards.
 

Poppa San

* Team Owner *
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
12,821
Reaction score
2,737
Location
20 miles from Lambeau
To expand on what Captain said, the clock restarts after the ball is spotted and at the same time as the 35 second clock. The rules were changed a few years back in an effort to shorten the game. Seems too many and too long of commercial breaks were causing the early games to extend into the late game start time. I presume the next phase would be to restart the clock X seconds after spotting following an incomplete pass so they can squeeze in a few more commercials.
 
H

HardRightEdge

Guest
To expand on what Captain said, the clock restarts after the ball is spotted and at the same time as the 35 second clock. The rules were changed a few years back in an effort to shorten the game. Seems too many and too long of commercial breaks were causing the early games to extend into the late game start time. I presume the next phase would be to restart the clock X seconds after spotting following an incomplete pass so they can squeeze in a few more commercials.
I believe the logic behind it is to get in more commercial breaks, not fewer.

Under the old rules, the out of bounds plays elongated the total elapsed time of the game while those brief clock stoppages were not long enough to squeeze in a commercial. For example, burning an extra 10 seconds of clock per play on 12 out of bounds plays buys a 2 minute official time out for a commercial break without elongating the elapsed time.

According to the first graph in the following link, games run longer now than they ever have.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a...eball-games-don-t-need-to-be-shortened-082614

The NFL's solution to early games running into the late ones was simple: they bumped the late games to 4:15 Eastern and even 4:30 for the national late games.

As an aside, I've been inclined to mark the beginning of the post-modern game at 1978, the year the so called "Mel Blount Rule" was instituted prohibiting DBs from chucking receivers past 5 yards. Note it was from that point forward that the chart line goes strait up as the league evolved toward pass heavy offenses as a result. Of course, more passing elongates the game with incompletion timeouts.
 

Members online

Latest posts

Top