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New rule means no free play for too many men on the field

9:00 am September 22, 2012, by Michael Cunningham

Sorry, coach, those are the rules. (Photo: John Bazemore / AP)

Sorry, coach, those are the rules. (Photo: John Bazemore / AP)

Rich McKay, president and CEO of the Falcons, serves on the NFL’s competition committee which is, in part, responsible for rule changes and clarifications. In a regular feature as part of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s football coverage, McKay will break down a rule or issue facing the league each week.

This week: The rule change for too many men on the field.

Broncos coach John Fox ranted at officials about a lot of calls during his team’s game against the Falcons on Monday, but one penalty in particular seemed to set him off.

The Falcons broke the huddle in the second quarter and as quarterback Matt Ryan approached the line of scrimmage, the Broncos were penalized five yards for having too many men on the field. Fox, who lost a challenge to the call, wouldn’t address the officiating after the game, but it appeared he believed the Broncos should have had more time to get the extra man off the field.

That may have been a valid protest in seasons past, but not anymore.

“The official got it right,” McKay said. “He counted 12. Denver lined up ready to defend the play, and he threw the flag.”

During the offseason the NFL adopted the college rule for when the defense has too many men on the field. Instead of waiting until after the ball is snapped to throw a flag, it’s now a dead-ball foul on the defense if the offensive snap is “imminent”in the judgment of the official.

That leaves some interpretation for exactly when the snap is “imminent,” but McKay said the committee wanted to allow for late defensive substitutions.

There will be cases when the new rule is not advantageous for the offense. That was the case Monday for the Falcons, who weren’t concerned about the time on the clock at that point in the game and, McKay said, “would just as soon run the play.”

McKay said the committee weighed the advantage the offense might receive from running a free play against the defense potentially being able to work the clock under the old rule.

“Let’s say the offense has the ball at their own 40 and there is 20 seconds to go and the play took eight seconds,” he said. “The feeling was you are down to 12 seconds in the game and the defense got an advantage of having 12 men and the offense only got an advantage of five yards.”

McKay said a couple of unnamed coaches several years ago were known to deliberately send out up to 14 players in an effort to gain an advantage on the play and run down the clock. But McKay said the more recent example came during the last Super Bowl, when the Giants were penalized for 12 men on the field during New England’s final drive.

“That’s the example of how rules generally get changed: There’s a play, people notice the play, people see the potential for inequity and we end up changing it,” McKay said.

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8 comments Add your comment

section 126

September 22nd, 2012
9:37 am

First!!!

MrShields

September 22nd, 2012
9:57 am

The replacement refs have been awful at times and perfect at others. Give them a break. Some coaches dont even know the rule book well enough to officiate a game. Don’t be mad at the replacement refs, be mad at the NFL for being foolish in the negotiations with the real refs. The League is the one ruining the game not the replacements.

Loyalfalconfrmthemississippi

September 22nd, 2012
10:00 am

That makes sense id say good rule change sounds like cheap shot from the giants last year shame shame

Mikey

September 22nd, 2012
11:04 am

The NFL needs a better review and quality control system. Reviewing the plays with on-field officials and suspending play while the review occurs is terrible. We can normally see the slow motion replay at home and can typically do a better job making the call than the officials on the field. The NFL should at least use as good a technology on these as we have at home. There is absolutely no need for onfield officials to trot over to talk to each coach and then trot over to a hooded monitor to review the play for two minutes.

I suggest they send all camera views to a parallel team (on the sideline or at a central location) that instantly reviews all angles and makes a call within say 5-10 seconds. Play on the field can continue normally but if the review team overturns a call, the official on the field gets an alert. At that point, the official can stop play and make call reversing adjustments.

Another option, is to have the on-field official request a review from this team before finalizing a call.

Better officiating techniques will do nothing but help the game. We watch NFL football in spite of the current mess. It was painful on Monday night… the worst I have ever seen and that is saying a lot. It is not the refs that are the problem… it is the NFL’s seriously FLAWED REVIEW SYSTEM. It is a BAD system and it is bad with regular refs and replacement refs. They are all human… they all make a mistake or need help once in a while… why not get set up to do it RIGHT!

Please, please Mr. McKay… consider improving call reversal system. Making it parallel rather than serial and using modern techology would make this game exciting again.

Michael M.

September 22nd, 2012
11:44 am

You notice John Fox had 12 men on the field several times and the reason why he knew his Broncos never have a chance against the ” Superior Mighty Falcons ” …………………………………….

so lets cheat a little and fake an injury one time to get a longer rest in between plays……………he pulled that one out of last year’s Giant’s playbook………………………….

okeetee

September 22nd, 2012
10:41 pm

12 men on the field is a penalty that should never happen and only exposes the brain dead stupidity of either the offense or defense, whoever is the guilty party! I never saw so many penalties for 12 men on the field than I did last year! Can’t these clowns even count to 12? Most of the 12 men on the field penalties last year had nothing to do with strategy! Either the offense or defense were just not ready to deal with the play and got caught with there pants down, so to speak! 5 yards can give you a 1st down, better field position, or even set you up for a make able field goal! If you can’t count to 12, maybe you took too many hits to the head!

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