Please forgive me, I am a college football guy, I don’t watch much NFL.
In college ball, it is my understanding that a replay has to take place before the ball is snapped for the next play. I was watching the Cowboys vs. Bills game tonight, and a replay was called after the ball had been snapped for the next play. Is this rule different in the NFL?
I was watching the game and my friends and I were all wondering why they were bothering reviewing the catch - the Cowboys had already run another play. I guess running another play doesn’t mean what I thought it did.
And more of a gripe than a question - this nonsense of calling time out just before the snap on a field goal has to stop. At this rate every kicker might as well get used to having to kick that game-winning field goal twice, because that’s what this causes.
It’s like you read my mind earlier tonight. I was waiting for the second time out to be called after the second kick. That’s just really annoying.
Not sure what the fine print on the rule is, but in this case it was an official review as opposed to a coaches challenge. The official argument is almost certainly that the officials had not set the ball ready for play, and hence the snap was not a legal play.
Well the officials DID set the ball up for the next play, because the Cowboys spiked the ball with 1 second left on the clock. There is probably no ideal solution to this, since it was a time-critical situation. If you let the play stand then the team may get credit for a catch that wasn’t made. If you stop to review the play immediately you stop the clock which was their biggest enemy at that point.
The guys on SportsCenter have not mentioned this at all, so either it was within the rules or they don’t know the rule themselves.
I think they’re going to say that in fact the decision to review the play was made and sent down before the ball was snapped and they just weren’t able to stop the play before the ball was snapped and spiked. Same with the time out.
Props to Folk though. There was no doubt about either of those.
The day the kicker misses the faux kick taken after the last-instant time-out call, then makes the re-kick, will be the day coaches stop doing that.
I live for that day. :mad:
That was what the announcers said later in the broadcast. It makes sense that the booth challenge would have the same time limit as a coach’s challenge. I mean, there has to be some time limit–otherwise they could be calling for a reset several plays down the road, which would be nuts–and the start of the next play is a pretty reasonable one. But just because someone has called time-out (referee or coach) doesn’t mean the ball won’t get snapped and a play run. It just doesn’t count, regardless of outcome.
Oh, and one amusing thing I thought of afterwards … Had Romo & Co. not managed to get organized and spike the ball after Owens and the turf ‘caught’ that ball, and time had expired … How ticked would the Bills have been when the official review nullified the catch & put thirteen seconds back on the clock? I almost wish that had happened, just to read the newspaper columns about it today. 
You and me both! I was a bit disappointed in Janikowski for blowing it on the 2nd attempt and starting this whole fiasco! If he’d have made it, I’m sure this wouldn’t have caught on.
Me too. And, when it happens, I hope the kicker gives a little “thanks” wink/gesture over to the opposing coach, too.
Didn’t see the game, but the rule is inside of two minutes remaining in either half-, the coaches can’t ask for a replay- the replay is called by the guy upstairs [not sure if that is God, the ghost of Pete Rozelle, or the replay booth officials.] The upstairs officials don’t have to worry about the snap.
And technically it reverts to the officials only after the Two-Minute Warning. Couple years ago in a St Louis Rams game, the officials really blew a call with something like 1:54 remaining in the game. The other team was out of time-outs/challenges. Even though there was 1:54 remaining, the two-minute warning had not been issued- as the play had begun at something like 2:04-- therefore unable to overturn what was “clear and convincing evidence” to me at home anyway.
I’m betting that if time had expired prior to the spike, the officials would not have reviewed the play. Even though the official position is that the review time out was called before the play began, I don’t believe it.
Gee, 1:54 certainly sounds like “inside of two minutes” to me. Does the rule actually state “after the two minute warning”? Furthermore, the next play can’t begin until after the two minute warning in that case, so why couldn’t the play be reviewed after the two minute warning but before the next play begins?
Also, what was the deal with the Bills contesting the call on the run by Jones where his knee touched? Yes, they got back 5 yards, but the first down was never in question. Shouldn’t they have saved the challenge for a more potentially rewarding situation? In the Green Bay game, the Packers lost a timeout in the exact same situation because the officials said that even though they found that the ball spot was wrong, it didn’t result in a change in the first down status therefore the challenge failed.
Replay challenges get called by the upstairs booth (not the coaches) starting on the first play after the two-minute warning.