Footballjoe Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 If Stafford would not have made the TD in the closing seconds, if he had enough time would he have been allowed to spike the ball? I thought I heard a commentator say he would not have been allowed to spike it even if he had enough time. Anyone know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 why would he not be allowed to spike the ball? As far as I know, there is no rule against that. why did this even come up? Who was the announcer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevegrab Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Never heard of such a thing, if there's time on the clock to snap the ball you can spike it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flemingd Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Not on that play, no. The "clock" play is specifically allowed as a means to kill the clock. Once there's a different move made, he loses that right and it's a normal play. If the threw it into the ground after that he'd be called for intentional grounding. If he were slick enough to realize he didn't get in and throw it at, but over, a receiver maybe, but spiking it at his own feet isn't going to meet the criteria of having a receiver in the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keggerz Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Not on that play, no. The "clock" play is specifically allowed as a means to kill the clock. Once there's a different move made, he loses that right and it's a normal play. If the threw it into the ground after that he'd be called for intentional grounding. If he were slick enough to realize he didn't get in and throw it at, but over, a receiver maybe, but spiking it at his own feet isn't going to meet the criteria of having a receiver in the area. exactly...I think people are thinking if the ball was re-spotted after the play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Number one, if he had tried to get across the goal line, but failed, I think it would be difficult for him to determine whether or not he had crossed the line of scrimmage, which would make it pretty risky to throw the ball at that point. In other words, he definitely couldn't spike the ball (after attempting to score), but he could (in theory) still throw an incomplete pass, assuming he hadn't crossed the LOS. In real time, that's probably going to be a tough thing for him to determine. I'm not sure what the ramifications of throwing from past the line would have been, at that point, but I'm guessing not good (I believe they use the 10-second runoff for penalties that are deemed to have been done to conserve time, which might apply in that case). As for what the announcer was saying, I got the impression that he was simply pointing out that, if Stafford didn't score, there wouldn't be enough time to run another play (and spike it on 2nd down), therefore making it a risky/gutsy play by Stafford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevegrab Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Makes more sense to me now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flemingd Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Number one, if he had tried to get across the goal line, but failed, I think it would be difficult for him to determine whether or not he had crossed the line of scrimmage, which would make it pretty risky to throw the ball at that point. In other words, he definitely couldn't spike the ball (after attempting to score), but he could (in theory) still throw an incomplete pass, assuming he hadn't crossed the LOS. In real time, that's probably going to be a tough thing for him to determine. I'm not sure what the ramifications of throwing from past the line would have been, at that point, but I'm guessing not good (I believe they use the 10-second runoff for penalties that are deemed to have been done to conserve time, which might apply in that case). You're not penalized for throwing past the line of scrimmage until your entire body is over. There was a play a few years ago with Favre and his entire arm, torso, and the ball were all past, but because part of his back foot was still behind the LOS, it's not a penalty. It ends up being pretty simple - dive, if no whistle, turn and throw it at a WR's feet. If you were in, it's a TD and irrelevant, and if you weren't, it's incomplete. You make a good point though about the speed at which he would have had to process that all. As for what the announcer was saying, I got the impression that he was simply pointing out that, if Stafford didn't score, there wouldn't be enough time to run another play (and spike it on 2nd down), therefore making it a risky/gutsy play by Stafford. The announcer was talking about during the same play. Although it's another good point that had he not scored, and not had the presence of mind to legally throw it away, there's no way they would have had time to re-spot and run a play on 2nd down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.