Koetter Explains Bad Time Stoppage

September 16th, 2018

Wait a minute, the Bucs converted a key first down to Mike Evans with just over two minutes remaining and it appeared they could ice the game because the Eagles were out of timeouts.

But then the clock stopped.

And then the Bucs called time out. Ugh! What the heck happened?

The simple explanation from Dirk Koetter was that it was an automatic clock stoppage on the pass interference penalty called on the Eagles. It didn’t matter that it was a declined. It’s an automatic stoppage, a terrible NFL rule in Joe’s opinion.

“In this particular case, that worked against ust, because if we wouldn’t have had a penalty there, we would have just had a first down and that would have been game over,” Koetter said.”It would have gone down to the two-minute warning and they were out of timeouts so we could have run it down.”

So there’s the skinny on a situation had a lot of Bucs fans annoyed.

Man, the NFL has to change that rule. You’re going to reward a defense for a penalty? Ridiculous.

18 Responses to “Koetter Explains Bad Time Stoppage”

  1. Rod Munch Says:

    I did a quick search on this as the game was going on and found the rule since apparently it happened in a Giants game, I believe in 2015, in a similar situation. What a dumb rule, get that fixed immediately. It’s the difference between the game being over and giving the Eagles the ball back, it punishing the team that did nothing wrong, just a dumb rule.

  2. lurker Says:

    i agree completely.
    i’m sure it will be looked at in the off-season.

  3. Bucsfan951 Says:

    NFL still can’t figure out what a catch is. What makes you think they can figure this out?

  4. DavidBigBucsFan99 Says:

    Why do you think they did it? Like our government lots of worthless rules

  5. scbucsfan Says:

    Evidentally we aren’t starting 0-3. The haters – and you know who you are – are hating it.

  6. Mike in LOL Says:

    It needs to be a big deal. This was just the 2nd game of the season. But imagine if this was the super bowl and a team won off of having a chance when a chance should not even have been granted. Should be up to the victim team regarding whether the clock should stop or not.

  7. lambchop Says:

    Why do the Bucs always have to bring awareness to stupid rules? At least this time it didn’t cost us.

  8. Rod Munch Says:

    From that Giants game in 2015, it was against the Cowboys, ESPN did a follow-up and got the following…

    “Prior to 1985, the game clock started on the snap after all penalty enforcements.

    “In order to shorten game time while retaining the number of plays at the historic level of about 155, in ensuing years a number of rules adjustments were made, including the reduction of the play clock from 45 to 40 seconds, while starting the game clock on the ready signal after a player going out of bounds or after certain penalty enforcements.

    “Because the end of the first half and the end of the game are particularly exciting parts of games, there was no desire to reduce the number of plays that might occur in those time segments, and the traditional timing rules were retained for the last two minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of the second half. During those periods the game clock starts on the snap after all out of bounds plays and after all penalty enforcements.”

  9. cmurda Says:

    I guess you were right Rod. I thought it was impossible but stupidly, that’s actually a rule.

  10. DayOnePaul Says:

    The announcers still haven’t figured it out. Send em a clue.

  11. HowToSpellRhonde Says:

    Also, DJax stepped out of bounds on his first down reception. Had he not, the Eagles would’ve called their final timeout before the warning.

  12. D-Rome Says:

    I agree. Bad rule.

  13. Rod Munch Says:

    cmurda – Not a problem, I thought it was wrong so I did quick search and found it – what I was posting in the game thread was from the rule book. I agree, it’s a really dumb play.

  14. JJones Says:

    Pretty sure that rule’s going to get exploited a bit more this year.

  15. Rod Munch Says:

    If a NY-Dallas game didn’t result in a change, I doubt the NFL will care about the Bucs in that situation, I doubt there will be any chances.

  16. Knoxville Bucs Fan Says:

    What’s gonna happen when teams figure out how to slow this magic down? Barber is not getting it done. Damn I’m a huge fan of JW, and it pains me to suggest this. Say this is no fluke with Fitz and he keeps this up, trade Winston for a solid starting cb and next years first round pick. Take that first round and maybe your 2nd or 3rd from next years draft and offer it to Pittsburgh for Bell.

  17. gambelero Says:

    The announcers got the rule book out and announced it correctly for those watching the game. Still stupid to give a team an advantage for committing a penalty.

  18. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    I bet DJax got some ribbing after the game.

    Speaking of hime, I’ll eat crow now. He did not cringe from hits in this game, and there plenty of them.