Bear with me. I don’t watch NFL very much; tuned in this week to see if the Lions made it.
What puzzled me was all the discussion about time-outs in the last few minutes of the game. Why are time-outs so significant in the NFL? I’ve never heard that much chatter about time-outs in a CFL game.
It’s the only way to stop the clock if you’re on defense. Otherwise the opposing team will keep draining the precious minutes of time remaining.
Typically, if you are within the last two minutes of a game, the opposing team can simply kneel out the clock and end the game unless you’ve got at least 2 timeouts (and preferably all 3) - in which case they must run some plays to try to get a first down. If they cannot get that first down, they will then typically punt the ball back to you with maybe 1:00 remaining and you get your last chance to score.
It’s because of the timekeeping rules in the NFL, which make it possible to run much more time off the clock without advancing the ball than is possible in the CFL. Having timeouts available helps prevent this.
It can throw the other team off its momentum, especially if the other team has possession. Everybody’s lined up, the play clock is counting down, all that’s needed is for the center to hike the ball to the QB on his signal …
… and at the last second, a player or coach on the defensive team calls time. Now the team with possession has to stand around for thirty seconds, breaking its momentum. The defense is hoping to throw the offense off its stride, in other words.
It’s not momentum - it’s strictly about prolonging the game so you have a chance to come back.
Generally speaking, if you have 3 timeouts after the two-minute warning (which is an additional timeout) you can use each of them to stop the clock after a play by your opponent (on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down) and then on 4th down they will have to punt to you. This means you are guaranteed to get the ball back with a chance to score.
If you are lacking one of those timeouts (which Detroit was due to poor play calling when they had the ball on the prior possession) then the other team can run a full 40 seconds off of the clock.
A quick google search tells me that the CFL play clock is only 20 seconds, which may explain much of the difference in relevance.
ETA: On preview I see it is more dramatic. In the CFL the clock always stops on a dead ball at the end of each half. This is not the case in the NFL. The clock continues to run unless a timeout is called.
For more detail, and to explain why an enthusiastic football fan such as @Northern_Piper is confused by this:
In the CFL, in the final three minutes of each half, the clock always stops when the play is whistled dead. It starts again, either when the ref puts the ball down and waves that scrimmage may begin (starting a 20s play clock), or at the snap. The variation here is roughly equivalent to stoppage rules in the NFL. The clock starts at the snap after incomplete forward passes, out of bounds, etc, and it starts when the ref waves the play may begin when the previous play ended with the ball carrier tackled in the field of play. Between the 20 second play clock and 3 downs, a team can only take 40 seconds off the clock by kneeling twice followed by a punt.
By contrast, in the NFL the clock never actually stops after a ball carrier is tackled in the field of play, and while the play clock starts immediately upon the previous play being whistled dead, it’s 40 seconds. Add in the extra down, and a team can burn a full 2 minutes off the clock with three kneels and a punt.
And if I’m reading correctly, even if the game clock expires the offensive team still gets to run that play. That is, the game doesn’t end when the game clock strikes zero, but rather when the play that started when the game clock was at zero ends (or when the 20-second play clock expires, I guess).
Yes, that’s correct. If the previous play ended with time on the clock, then another play must be run even if the game clock runs down to zero before the play clock expires. You get to (or have to, because sometimes you might rather not) snap the ball with no time on the game clock.
It should also be noted that the 2-minute warning itself serves as a de facto timeout, and both the offense and defense often take that into consideration as part of strategizing as the game winds down.
That’s because nobody’s interested in cuts to Celine Dion when she’s in the VIP box.
In a close game, having enough timeouts can mean the difference between winning and losing,
That’s why “clock management” is a virtue frequently discussed about head coaches, usually in the negative.
That’s much more of a basketball thing. If one team is rolling they will call a timeout to break the other team’s momentum and give the first team a chance to regroup.
In football, it’s all about preserving time for the team that’s behind (either offense or defense).
Well, the Lions used one of their three time outs in a situation where many felt it shouldn’t have been used. So, after they scored late and only needed a field goal to tie, they had to resort to an on-side kick, a method that has only a 4% chance of success in the current NFL. If they had al 3 time outs, they could have kicked it away and used them stop the clock and get the ball back, which they would have succeeded in doing unless the 49ers got a first down.
Thanks for the replies, all.
I hadn’t appreciated that the game clock keeps running between plays in the NFL. As Gorsnak mentions, in the CFL, during the last three minutes of the half, the game clock stops as soon as the ball is dead. « Get down! » is commonly heard in the stands if your team has the ball and is behind. If the carrier is bottled up, better to go down by contact than keep struggling to advance.
That also explains something else that puzzled me: in the Chiefs-Ravens game: the teams left the field when there was still about 20 seconds on the game clock. Can’t do that in the CFL.
And being a Riders fan, I’ve seen Hail Mary plays start when there are only a couple of seconds in the game clock. Once the ball is snapped, play continues until the ball is dead.
This is another difference, then. As Spoons mentions, it’s common in the CFL for the team on defence to call a timeout to break the offence’s momentum.
Interesting. Not in the CFL.
This is true in the NFL, as well.
Simply put, teams that are ahead by a score or less near the end of the game want to keep the game clock running so the team that’s behind has no time to score. The team that’s behind will want to stop the game clock whenever they can to preserve time to possibly score.
There starts to be a lot of nuance and strategy in the last 10 or so minutes of a close game with how many more posessions a team might have, getting or preventing first downs, the offense getting out of bounds to stop the clock, etc. For example, I think at the end of the Lions/49ers game the Lions were in a situation where they either had to throw the ball to the end zone to try and score, or just throw it away to stop the clock, as any other play risked using up too much time for them to attempt another score (e.g. a running play or pass that resulted in the player getting tackled short of the goal line and in the field of play would keep the game clock running, so the offense would call a time-out to stop the clock).
Also, a team that is driving towards a go ahead score would ideally like to kick a FG on the final play of the game. They don’t want to give the other team a chance for a Hail Mary play, so they are trying to use up exactly the amount of time left on the clock; no more, no less.
There are situations where the team with the lead is guaranteed to win if they don’t score. I believe I saw Patrick Mahomes slide before the end zone earlier this season. I know Frank Gore stopped himself from sitting to ice a win at least once. I’ll occasionally hear commentators criticize players who score a touchdown when they shouldn’t.
Rarely, a defense will let a touchdown happen so their offense can try to match. One time recently, defenders even pushed a ball carrier into the end zone.
Even more crazy is when you intentionally give points to the opponent in order to win. A classic example is when a punter intentionally steps out the back of the end zone for a safety, giving the opponent 2 points, but also burning off time and then allowing you to kick off with a free kick to push the opponent all the way back to the other side of the field. This happens frequently enough that when I was going to look up an example of it, I got tons of videos, so figured it wasn’t even unusual enough to bother grabbing a video. Odds are that anyone that watches American football regularly has seen it happen.