waltcolemansux
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Joined: 05 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject: 12/2/07 - Bills vs Redskins |
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Interesting observation from the game. Seems the officials screwed up along with coach Gibbs. I got this off ESPN...
"Hey, you can't call two consecutive timeouts to ice the kicker." So spoke my 12-year-old, Spenser, as venerable Joe Gibbs signaled a second consecutive timeout when Buffalo lined up to attempt a potential game-winning 51-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining. Gibbs was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, in keeping with Rule 12, 3, 1, u(i), which forbids consecutive defensive timeouts before a field goal attempt. (Looked it up under "freezing the kicker" in the NFL rulebook. The league seems to think "freezing" is more dignified than "icing.") This blunder by Gibbs made the final field goal attempt a 36-yarder, rather than a 51-yarder. Bills kicker Rian Lindell is reliable and might have hit from 51 anyway, so perhaps the Gibbs error did not impact the outcome. But it was, well, embarrassing to see the Hall of Fame coach, whose return to the Redskins' sideline has been troubled, make the kind of basic error immediately caught by a 12-year-old.
Zebra note: The above-cited rule also reads, "The Referee (or another official) will notify the Head Coach that two charged time-outs by the same team in the same dead ball period are not permitted." Gibbs said after the game that he asked the sideline official whether he could call a second timeout. Apparently, Gibbs was not warned that he could not, and the rule says he should have been warned. Gibbs did not know about the consecutive timeout rule to begin with, and from his postgame comments, didn't know the warning clause either. But it appears at least one of the zebras working Sunday's game also did not know the details of the consecutive timeout rule. Probably Buffalo would have won in any case, but officials are supposed to know the rulebook! |
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