In the final seconds of regulation Sunday between the New England Patriots and the Broncos, Denver was granted an “excess timeout” that left everyone pretty darn confused.
But now there’s an explanation from NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino, who called in to NFL Network’s “NFL GameDay Final” to explain why the clock started running immediately after Broncos defensive end Malik Jackson ran off the field with an injury:
“The injury stopped the running clock. There was a pass to (Patriots tight end Scott) Chandler, he was down inbounds, the defensive player was injured, so by rule, that’s an excess timeout. Denver didn’t have any timeouts left. If they had one left, we’d just charge them, and we’d go on the snap like we normally do. But an excess timeout, by rule, the play clock is set to 40 (seconds), and we wind the clock. That’s so a defensive player can’t fake an injury and stop the clock when the defense is behind. You always wind the clock on an excess timeout when the clock was running, and we have to make sure that the quarterback knows that and the head coach knows that, so that’s what we’ll make sure we review with the crew how that was communicated. But it was administered correctly.”
It’s pretty clear Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick never got the memo, as Brady let about 10 seconds run off before taking the snap, while Belichick screamed profanities at the referees from the sideline.
Despite the fact the refs definitely should have communicated the rule to Belichick and Brady, there’s only a slim chance the outcome would have been different had they known. The small bit of extra time could have moved them closer, but it would have taken a huge play from one of the offensive backups on the field to give the Patriots any more than the three more points they scored to force overtime.
Thumbnail photo via Rob Foldy/USA TODAY Sports Images
