ping Dr. Sak

[dawgfan]

Chris Petersen is taking a lot of heat here in Seattle for his decision to run the ball late vs. Arizona instead of taking a knee - lots of media, former players and fans saying he blew it. And of course there are some fellow coaches sticking up for him, and Petersen himself insisting they followed their chart and he wouldn't change a thing.

So, my questions for you are involving the play clock and game clock. Here's the scenario - we know (from replays) that Washington snapped the ball on first down with 1:33 on the game clock and 7 seconds left on the play clock on the play that resulted in a handoff and then a fumble which Arizona recovered. So we can infer that when the play clock reset to 40 after the previous play (a run play that gained a first down that did not go out of bounds) there were 126 seconds left on the game clock (2:06). We know that Arizona had 1 timeout remaining.

Folks that say Petersen screwed-up insist that had he could have burned up to 120 seconds if he was willing to take the delay-of-game penalties. That leaves a minimum of 6 additional seconds to burn off.

How quickly could Arizona have realistically called time out after that first kneel down? Could they have gotten that called with no additional time ticking off the game clock?

Do the game clock and the play clock always stay in synch, i.e. if the play clock was rolling, does that mean the game clock would as well, or would the game clock be delayed as the officials re-spotted the ball?

How much time typically runs off the game clock on a quick kneel down, i.e. the QB takes the snap and kneels right away rather than trying to take a few steps back?

My read on this is that Petersen probably could have killed off enough time to ensure he wouldn't have to punt on 4th down, but that it's potentially a bit of grey area. Any thoughts?

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Chris Petersen is taking a lot of heat here in Seattle for his decision to run the ball late vs. Arizona instead of taking a knee - lots of media, former players and fans saying he blew it. And of course there are some fellow coaches sticking up for him, and Petersen himself insisting they followed their chart and he wouldn't change a thing.

So, my questions for you are involving the play clock and game clock. Here's the scenario - we know (from replays) that Washington snapped the ball on first down with 1:33 on the game clock and 7 seconds left on the play clock on the play that resulted in a handoff and then a fumble which Arizona recovered. So we can infer that when the play clock reset to 40 after the previous play (a run play that gained a first down that did not go out of bounds) there were 126 seconds left on the game clock (2:06). We know that Arizona had 1 timeout remaining.

Folks that say Petersen screwed-up insist that had he could have burned up to 120 seconds if he was willing to take the delay-of-game penalties. That leaves a minimum of 6 additional seconds to burn off.

How quickly could Arizona have realistically called time out after that first kneel down? Could they have gotten that called with no additional time ticking off the game clock?
A usual kneel down takes around 2 to 3 seconds and I would bet that the coach would be calling TO before the knee went down so in total I say about 3 seconds would come off the clock

Do the game clock and the play clock always stay in synch, i.e. if the play clock was rolling, does that mean the game clock would as well, or would the game clock be delayed as the officials re-spotted the ball?

Once the player is downed the officials hand goes up and the 40 second clock starts. You may have a delay of a second at most.

How much time typically runs off the game clock on a quick kneel down, i.e. the QB takes the snap and kneels right away rather than trying to take a few steps back?

3 seconds

My read on this is that Petersen probably could have killed off enough time to ensure he wouldn't have to punt on 4th down, but that it's potentially a bit of grey area. Any thoughts?

a lot depends on when the clock starts after the first down. The play clock starts when the ball is dead but sometimes it takes 8 to 10 seconds to spot the ball and the referee to wind the game clock after the first down.

My comments are in bold above

[dawgfan]

Thanks. Based on that info, it does seem like Petersen erred in not going immediately to the kneel-down plays, though it would have been close.