Concerned About the 35s Change Ruining the Final 3 Minutes?

[TecnoGenius]

We have been told we'll have a 35 sec play clock that starts when the previous play is blown dead.  We were not told there are any exceptions or workarounds or tweaks for the final 3 minutes of the game.  So for now we must assume the same 35s rule applies to the entire game.

Picture in your mind how that will affect our famous final 3 of each half.  Is the picture in your mind a worse thing than what we are used to?

Issues?  Workarounds?  Additional rules needed?

[TecnoGenius]

The thing I hate most about the NFL is the dumb thing of the time it takes the refs to place the ball and get out of the way counts against the team on O.  Sometimes it can cost a game.  And it looks silly & dumb.  And it's not constant or consistent: some refs are faster than others.  Yet another avenue to "rig" a game, too: "oops, didn't get the ball placed in time, sorry you didn't get the comeback win!"

Now picture ageing Proulx or not-too-skinny Major trying to run, all harried and stressed, to get the ball placed in time with 30s left on the game clock.  Even Commander Data may get flustered and make mistakes.

I don't want this for my league.  Certainly not in the last 3 mins.

[TecnoGenius]

Are teams going to have to start spiking the ball?  Another lame NFLism.

How can you waste a down on a spike when you only have 3 to work with, not 4?  Of course they can waste a down in the NFL, they have so many.

More Hegelian Dialectic?  Create the problem (teams need to spike but can't because of 3 downs), then provide the solution ("guess we'll have to go to 4 downs then! <smirk grin hand-rub>").

[TecnoGenius]

Riderforum has a good point.  In the final 3 minutes each 1st down can buy you 105 secs of clock bleed.  3 mins is 180 secs total.  So without even getting a first down you have bled more than half the clock (if you get a doable 3rd down like a sneak), maybe even more if you can make your plays take 4-6s to run before DBC.

That means, without any further updates on how the 3 mins is going to be treated specially, if you get one 1st down in the final 3 mins you are in victory and win the game (minus the 1 team timeout in the final 3, of course).

LAME.  Improved product my butt!

[TecnoGenius]

bomb squad pointed out that the game clock could be untied from the play clock like the NFL in the final 2 mins.  If the NFL doesn't run the game clock after an incompletion, just like the CFL, then the clock bleed may not be as big an issue as in my last post -- at least after incompletions.

However, from a "trying to bleed the clock" team A standpoint (when team A has the ball and the lead), they can still bleed the 70-105s+ every 1st down because they can opt to just run the ball or make sure they don't pass & go OOB.

That is still way too much compared to the 40-60s+ of bleed they get now.  Right now, if teams can't get 1st downs, we are basically guaranteed to get 3+ possessions in the last 3 mins.  That's exciting.  With the rule changes, we almost never get more than 2.  (Both adjusted for timeouts left, of course, although limited if the CFL keeps the "only 1 timeout after the warning" rule.)

I'm thinking that if you want to maintain the Best Final Minutes In Football in the world, and wild & wacky endings, there should be a carve out that returns us to the normal 20s clock rules for those 3 minutes (twice a game).  However, I'm pretty sure that will never happen.

Lame-butt waiting for refs to run it up and QB spiking the ball, here we come!  Gag

[bomb squad]

They (who exactly is "they" here anyway?) better come out with further information and explanation real soon on this, or people are going to continue assume the worst. It already is ugly as we can see. Any delay or "well we're going to look at this" put offs are really going to blow up on them. They should have a website with all this info already set up. Is there? I haven't heard anything.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I'm sure teams will get more timeouts with a rolling clock so they can stop it and try and get the ball back.

Both the NCAA and NFL use a similar system and both leagues also have fantastic endings do games a lot of the time.

[TecnoGenius]

They should have a website with all this info already set up. Is there? I haven't heard anything.

https://www.cfl.ca/game-changes-faq/

But you've probably seen that already anyway.  It says nothing to answer any question a non-casual fan would ask.  So, useless to us.

Interesting, and more tinfoil: they have 4 points shown.  Each one it basically one main topic. 1: goalposts, 2: field dimension changes, 3: rouge (near)death, 4: ... #4 they combined 2 things (why?): the bench move which every single fan on earth agrees with, and... the 35s play clock change which has absolutely nothing to do with bench positioning.

Why?  Why not make a point #5?  The two #4 issues are separate.  Oh ya, propaganda 101, combine and conflate 2 issues, listing the popular one first to gain support for the less popular one.  Combine them into 1 issue in the subjects' minds.  Make it hard to argue the unpopular point, "what? you take umbrage with point 4, are you insane? the benches being moved is awesome! shut up and go away."

[TecnoGenius]

They (who exactly is "they" here anyway?)

Ostensibly Johnston and the "board" of the CFL of which every team has a member/input.

My tinfoil says the "they" are Johnston's ultimate masters who selected & arranged his placement.  My guess is, because of the chain of ownership of his previous employer, "they" are ultimately Disney, who don't give 2 poops about the CFL or its fans other than profit motive and the desire to shape society to their goals.  Don't forget, Disney also owns ESPN, who lifted the mask years ago.

better come out with further information and explanation real soon on this, or people are going to continue assume the worst. It already is ugly as we can see. Any delay or "well we're going to look at this" put offs are really going to blow up on them.

No kidding.  Say what you want about Ambrosie, but you never got the sense he was pushing a hidden agenda, even with his GLOB frivolity.  He just came out and told you what he was doing and why, and he was never proven a liar or sneak.

This new guy is as shifty as they come and mostly no one trusts his motives right now.  And mostly no one (on either forum) thinks this is the last of the NFL-ization.  Kinda hilarious: the one time everyone can see and feel and KNOWS the slippery slope is real... and intentional.

Some people do support the NFL-iszation, and that's a valid opinion to argue, but I would hope even they would demand transparency and full honesty about the intended direction this is going.

[TecnoGenius]

I'm sure teams will get more timeouts with a rolling clock so they can stop it and try and get the ball back.

Then why not just say that?  Or did no one give these changes more than 5 minutes thought before the presser?  They do have a FAQ... what do they think it exists for?  Just to rehash what they already said, but in HTML?

Why didn't they just go to a game last week and stop & ask the average jersey-wearing STH.  "If we went to an auto-35s clock, what potential issues do you foresee?"  It took the fans on forums all of 30s to identify the pitfalls vis a vis the final 3 mins.

And their goal is to try to look LESS bush league??  Hahaha

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Then why not just say that?  Or did no one give these changes more than 5 minutes thought before the presser?  They do have a FAQ... what do they think it exists for?  Just to rehash what they already said, but in HTML?

Why didn't they just go to a game last week and stop & ask the average jersey-wearing STH.  "If we went to an auto-35s clock, what potential issues do you foresee?"  It took the fans on forums all of 30s to identify the pitfalls vis a vis the final 3 mins.

And their goal is to try to look LESS bush league??  Hahaha

They said in the press conference there will be a series of other rule changes as a result of these big picture adjustments. They literally told you that.

[bunker]

Ostensibly Johnston and the "board" of the CFL of which every team has a member/input.

My tinfoil says the "they" are Johnston's ultimate masters who selected & arranged his placement.  My guess is, because of the chain of ownership of his previous employer, "they" are ultimately Disney, who don't give 2 poops about the CFL or its fans other than profit motive and the desire to shape society to their goals.  Don't forget, Disney also owns ESPN, who lifted the mask years ago.

No kidding.  Say what you want about Ambrosie, but you never got the sense he was pushing a hidden agenda, even with his GLOB frivolity.  He just came out and told you what he was doing and why, and he was never proven a liar or sneak.

This new guy is as shifty as they come and mostly no one trusts his motives right now.  And mostly no one (on either forum) thinks this is the last of the NFL-ization.  Kinda hilarious: the one time everyone can see and feel and KNOWS the slippery slope is real... and intentional.

Some people do support the NFL-iszation, and that's a valid opinion to argue, but I would hope even they would demand transparency and full honesty about the intended direction this is going.

How quickly they forget.

https://3downnation.com/2022/04/15/cfl-commissioner-randy-ambrosie-denies-anti-canadian-sentiment-but-sees-issues-with-current-ratio/

Its not about Ambrosie or Johnston. Its owners behind the scene that have been pushing in this direction for a while. Johnston is just the front man, and they likely went over a general review of this plan before he was hired to ensure they were all on the same page.
Doug Brown and Pete Dyakowski know the CFL, and are pretty astute (Dyakowski is actually the smartest person in Canada...look it up), and if they see this as the beginning of the end for the distinctiveness of the CFL, I am inclined to believe them.
Just like they moved the hashmarks and changed the kickoff starting points in 2022 to "increase offense", they will wait a year or two, talk about how the changes are working, but more "tweaks" are needed to increase offense further, and make the further necessary changes to bring us closer and closer to NFL rules.

[TecnoGenius]

They said in the press conference there will be a series of other rule changes as a result of these big picture adjustments. They literally told you that.

Uh, they said "we will change rules".  They didn't say anything about what rules those would be.  What they said does nothing to lift the 100% dark we are in.

We fans want DETAILS.  No, not whether they need to add 2 or 6 more timeouts, or the carveouts for the final 3 mins; but whether they anticipated a change to timeouts or 3 mins at all!  As Dr Evil says, throw us a frickin' bone man!

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Uh, they said "we will change rules".  They didn't say anything about what rules those would be.  What they said does nothing to lift the 100% dark we are in.

We fans want DETAILS.  No, not whether they need to add 2 or 6 more timeouts, or the carveouts for the final 3 mins; but whether they anticipated a change to timeouts or 3 mins at all!  As Dr Evil says, throw us a frickin' bone man!

To be honest, I'd probably drip feed some of those things if it were my call. The off-season is long as the CFL needs all the help it can get from December to April.

[TecnoGenius]

How quickly they forget.

https://3downnation.com/2022/04/15/cfl-commissioner-randy-ambrosie-denies-anti-canadian-sentiment-but-sees-issues-with-current-ratio/

But Unca Brosie was very forthcoming in that interview with actual answers to things and an actual attempt to anticipate fan angst and address it.  At least to the best of his ability within the confines of having to not blow his NDA on what he's forbidden to discuss.

And you know what, basically everything he says there came to pass and everything he said wouldn't, wouldn't.  At least not on his watch.

Ambrosie is like my grandpa (was) -- an old guy you feel has your interest at heart and understands -- because he literally was one of us, and even more so because he was a NAT player too!  Johnston is more like the sleazy used Yugo/Lada salesman cousin you have.  You just KNOW he's lying.  The misdirection and lying by omission from him is off the charts, like he straight out of Langley.