Pats Fans welcome

[egri]

Originally Posted by Prof_Plum

Got a rule question - and I thought I knew about all rules.
It was near the end of the 3rd quarter with Atl having to punt. They let the play clock run out, hoping to get a 5 yd penalty to get a better punting angle. This left 3-4 sec on the game clock after the 'delay of game'. Next there may have been a commercial break. When coming back to the game, it's now the 4thQ and I'm pretty sure the announcers said the refs started the game clock and Atl let it run out.

I've never heard of the game clock being restarted following a delay of game. Maybe it happens all the time and I've never noticed. But if the game clock restarts after a delay of game this suggests the penalized team really never has to run a play and could just let the game clock run out - which is ridiculous.

Someone on Reddit had the same question:

(f) If the game clock is stopped after a down in which there was a foul by either team, following enforcement or declination of a penalty, the game clock will start as if the foul had not occurred, except that the clock will start on the snap if: (1) the foul occurs after the two-minute warning of the first half; (2) the foul occurs inside the last five minutes of the second half; or (3) a specific rule prescribes otherwise.

http://static.nfl.com/static/content...ame_Timing.pdf

The game clock stopped when the play ended with a penalty, and then restarted before the ball was snapped because it wasn't within the last 2 minutes of the first half, or the last 5 minutes of the second.

[Prof_Plum]

Thanks. I had a feeling something like that was occurring. So clearly once Atl was up 28-3, they should have simply taken delay of game penalties until there was 5 min left in the game.

I would guess there's another rule somewhere stating that the game clock will not re-start after 'x' number of penalties in a row.

[clydepepper]

As good as he is, Dan Quinn was still a first season head coach and hopefully he learned some valuable clock management lessons.

It seems like some coaches never learn to manage the game clock.

We will see if Quinn gets it next time.