As Seattle was melting down and play in regulation came to conclusion,
and odd variation of an obscure rule came into play. Thought I'd query
here as to clarification.
Baltimore has the ball and needs a FG to tie. No timeouts. They
complete a pass well downfield (and well within fieldgoal range) but
with only ten or eleven seconds left on the clock. Everybody has to
hustle down there and line up for the spike. At 4 seconds, the ball is
snapped and the clock stops. But a flag flies out as well. Seems the
tight end had lined up sideways, facing the quarterback instead of with
two feet square to the line of scrimmage. Illegal procedure. They mark
off a 5-yard penalty, and, with the clock stopped for the penalty they
have plenty of time to get the field goal team on the field and kick the
game-tying field goal.
Under what conditions are there supposed to be a 10-second runoff? An
offensive illegal procedure penalty with everyone hurrying to spike the
ball in the last minute (or is it 2) of the game, with no timeouts
available ... aren't these those conditions? I was sure they'd blown it
with that penalty.
