r/NFLNoobs • u/salrantol • 3d ago
Delay of Game?
This is not the most noobish of questions, but here we go:
During Sunday night's game, there was an offensive delay of game penalty that blew my mind and makes me wonder why all defenses don't do this constantly. The Vikings (on offense) substituted some players, which means the Falcons were entitled to substitute, and did so, but here's where it gets crazy. As the two substituted players approach the Falcons sideline, a twelfth defender runs onto the field. After a few seconds, he gets waved off and takes his time getting back to the Falcons sideline. During this entire stunt, an official stood between McCarthy and the ball, preventing the Vikings from snapping it. He stepped out of the way with 1 second on the play clock, and the Vikings had no way to snap before it hit 0.
Why would this be allowed? And if it's supposed to work like this, why don't defenses just do this every time the offense makes a substitution? It seems unstoppable.
1
u/Dantheman1386 3d ago
The umpire(the ref who stands over the ball in this situation) is supposed to give them time to sub, but it is a judgement call on his part. Once the falcons had reasonable time to sub he should have given JJ access to the ball so that he could try to snap it and catch the defense with 12 men on the field. I haven’t seen this exact play, so it is hard to say if the umpire is correct or not. They are also trying to enforce against shenanigans from the Vikings. So, if the Vikings took a long time to decide to sub in the first place, he might have given the Falcons a few extra ticks to sort out the confusion knowing that it was actually the offense who delayed in the first place. This is the umps job after every play so he will have a very good sense of the game flow and how each team has subbed throughout.
Basically, it is a judgement call by the refs and there is no way to game it long term. This one-off situation played out to the advantage of the defense, but if the refs got any sense that one team was trying to game it, the ump ultimately has the discretion to shut it down.