Surprisingly subtle issue with the game clock on kickoffs

[John Comey]

Let me know if I am in err of this observation. On touchbacks, time goes off the clock. Sometimes like 15 seconds. Should there be ANY time going off the clock when there's a touchback? I can understand if there's a "He catches it and is being told to kneel it" or something like that...but a "it rolls through the endzone for a touchdown" leads to 10 seconds being taken off the clock. Is this something that should be looked at?

[btmlltt]

touch[i]back[/i]?

[John Comey]

Er...yeah. Edited in the first post.

[John Comey]

To revisit this, touchbacks generally take 15-19 seconds in the game to happen, even on plays like this: Michigan ball, Q3, 1-0-PNST0 (02:59) 12-14 Offense: Medium Pass, Set: I Form, Play: I-SE-slant-FL-str Defense: Normal, Set: 4-4, Play: 44-norm-Man-B6,7 QB J. Jones throws an incomplete pass to WR L. Mitchell. The Conversion is no good! Michigan ball, Q3, 1-10-MICH35 (02:40) 12-14 Line-drive kickoff from Chad Whitley.They'll let it roll into the endzone for a touchback. Not a pretty kickoff, but get's the job done. Penn State will get started at the 20. Nineteen seconds there. Is that accurate? It's consistent in the game, but is it consistent with real football? Please let me know if I'm in err here. -John

[mauboy]

I've lost games because of this problem. Well, not necesarly lost completely because I'd still have to go the length of the field, but it's kind of hard to when the time goes from what you thought you'd have, one minute, to twenty seconds instead. It's a big time bummer.

[sflcat]

[QUOTE=John Comey]To revisit this, touchbacks generally take 15-19 seconds in the game to happen, even on plays like this: Michigan ball, Q3, 1-0-PNST0 (02:59) 12-14 Offense: Medium Pass, Set: I Form, Play: I-SE-slant-FL-str Defense: Normal, Set: 4-4, Play: 44-norm-Man-B6,7 QB J. Jones throws an incomplete pass to WR L. Mitchell. The Conversion is no good! Michigan ball, Q3, 1-10-MICH35 (02:40) 12-14 Line-drive kickoff from Chad Whitley.They'll let it roll into the endzone for a touchback. Not a pretty kickoff, but get's the job done. Penn State will get started at the 20. Nineteen seconds there. Is that accurate? It's consistent in the game, but is it consistent with real football? Please let me know if I'm in err here. -John[/QUOTE] If the ball hits the ground or is caught in the field of play, the game clock will run. However, 19 seconds sounds a little long for a ball that hits the ground and rolls into the endzone. I'm thinking at the most 9-10 seconds.

[John Comey]

Not even. 5-7 seconds. If it's caught and downed in the endzone, that's 1-3 seconds. If it hits the field of play, the clock doesn't go off until it's touched. If it's touched in the endzone, that's another 1-3 seconds. -John

[John Comey]

Bumping, because I don't know if Arlie's looked at this.

[Arlie Rahn]

I've seen it. I'm going to put it in tech support to keep with the other items to look at.

[learning2fly]

To answer any questions concerning this... The clock does not run on a kickoff until the ball is touched. The clock shouldn't run when it's kicked through the endzone. Also a normal TD return won't result in a 19 second run off. Only way that would happen is with extreme across field direction changes or a lateraling desperation return.

[John Comey]

And we're not even talking TD runs. We're talking 25-yard returns. Well, we're talking any returns.