35 Second Play Clock

[bomb squad]

Well, we were able to see several games in the pre-season of this in action. The most telling one, the live game many of us saw at the stadium, where we were able to see how it all operated.   

To me it seemed that, in general, the offences had more time to work with than in the old system. If I had to put a quantity to that, I would say at least 5 seconds. The intent, of course, was not to give the offences more time, or slow the "feel" of the game down. But that's the way it felt to me. In general, the offences operated at the same pace as before, but the "urgency" didn't seem to be there. There was often 8+ seconds left when they snapped the ball. In games where a team has a substantial lead in the second half, they may choose to use those seconds. That's not good.

Now, part of that was the delay in starting the clock. That was usually about 2 secs. That's an easy fix. Start it when the whistle ends the previous play.

I'd like to hear other's thoughts and take on it. Am I out to lunch on what I "felt"? Too early to tell? We can always update this as the season progresses. And let's just try to keep it about the play clock only. Please and thank you.

[Jesse]

It's hard to say without a few regular season games. Maybe I'll notice the difference more in a regular TSN broadcast.

Apparently the clock moves back and forth a bit. It's still 20 seconds after timeouts and penalties, etc.

I saw one guy on reddit who claims to have counted plays and says were losing 20+ plays a game in the preseason compared to a random sampling of regular season games from last year. Approximately 110 to 130.So there's also that to consider.

I will say this though - as someone who is not a fan of the field changes and am bitterly opposed to all things Stew due to that fact - there have been many games in the past where I have been frustrated with the refs not placing the ball and moving onto the next play in a timely fashion, especially when the offence is moving. In an ideal world, this helps that. Of course, in the CFL, the refs will probably still do what they want.

[Tecno]

It's hard to say without a few regular season games. Maybe I'll notice the difference more in a regular TSN broadcast.

I agree.  If I hadn't have known there was a new clock paradigm, I wouldn't even have noticed.

Apparently the clock moves back and forth a bit. It's still 20 seconds after timeouts and penalties, etc.

Ya, and I could have sworn I noticed a couple of times the refs whistling things "out" to get some stuff fixed up (probably the spot).  So I think if it's about to get "keystone cops" out there they will just whistle and wave their arms as an "out".  And that's ok, but it can slightly bias the games if they give extra time or whatever to one team and not the other.

I saw one guy on reddit who claims to have counted plays and says were losing 20+ plays a game in the preseason compared to a random sampling of regular season games from last year. Approximately 110 to 130.So there's also that to consider.

a) This will show up in stats early, and StatsJunkie will be all over it.  That would be quite a debacle given that the main selling point was more plays per game.

b) Could just be a PS thing: at the end of our PS2 we could have gone quick game and all-pass to stop the clock, etc, but we didn't.  We just wanted it to end.  That won't happen in a real game.

I will say this though - as someone who is not a fan of the field changes and am bitterly opposed to all things Stew due to that fact - there have been many games in the past where I have been frustrated with the refs not placing the ball and moving onto the next play in a timely fashion, especially when the offence is moving.

And one of the main selling points was teams can't dilly-dally deciding units and slow-walking substitutions... what if that was a bit of a misdirection and a big part of it is making the refs & stick crews work faster??

Another thing I found odd was they still whistle the new play in, like with 15-25s to go.  I had this idea that there would be no "whistle in", but I guess they need to signal when they are satisfied the team can snap.  (In the NFL, in the frenzied last minute of a game when the down team is trying to come back and the refs run to place the ball -- do they whistle it in? or just get the bleep out of the way and snap there they go?)

[Jesse]

a) This will show up in stats early, and StatsJunkie will be all over it.  That would be quite a debacle given that the main selling point was more plays per game.

b) Could just be a PS thing: at the end of our PS2 we could have gone quick game and all-pass to stop the clock, etc, but we didn't.  We just wanted it to end.  That won't happen in a real game.

When you think about it, the game clock would be stopped under the old rules while refs and players ran to the new line. Now, the game clock keeps going unless there is a stoppage. Makes sense that there will be less plays.

[BIGBLUE204]

I agree.  If I hadn't have known there was a new clock paradigm, I wouldn't even have noticed.

Ya, and I could have sworn I noticed a couple of times the refs whistling things "out" to get some stuff fixed up (probably the spot).  So I think if it's about to get "keystone cops" out there they will just whistle and wave their arms as an "out".  And that's ok, but it can slightly bias the games if they give extra time or whatever to one team and not the other.

a) This will show up in stats early, and StatsJunkie will be all over it.  That would be quite a debacle given that the main selling point was more plays per game.

b) Could just be a PS thing: at the end of our PS2 we could have gone quick game and all-pass to stop the clock, etc, but we didn't.  We just wanted it to end.  That won't happen in a real game.

And one of the main selling points was teams can't dilly-dally deciding units and slow-walking substitutions... what if that was a bit of a misdirection and a big part of it is making the refs & stick crews work faster??

Another thing I found odd was they still whistle the new play in, like with 15-25s to go.  I had this idea that there would be no "whistle in", but I guess they need to signal when they are satisfied the team can snap.  (In the NFL, in the frenzied last minute of a game when the down team is trying to come back and the refs run to place the ball -- do they whistle it in? or just get the bleep out of the way and snap there they go?)

The refs in the NFL place the ball down when the reffing crew is set and then they get out of the way.

[TBURGESS]

Not as big a difference as I was expecting, but preseason means not trying to drain the clock in the 4th. That will come into play during the season, meaning fewer plays in the 4th Q.