The Nation's Tears: Volume III

Cotillion

New Member
Jun 11, 2019
5,041
PS. It would have been more time off the clock, but the clock operator was kind of thrown for a loop on the second one. There was an 8 second or so delay between the play clock starting and the game clock following suit.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,664
I didn't see that article as whining. I thought it was kind of respectful of Belichick's cleverness. If it was whining, it wouldn't have included Belichick's admission that they exploited a loophole and that it probably should be closed, but as of now it's not so it's ok to use it. That was as fair an article on that little sequence as you're gonna find, I think.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
42,055
I didn't see that article as whining. I thought it was kind of respectful of Belichick's cleverness. If it was whining, it wouldn't have included Belichick's admission that they exploited a loophole and that it probably should be closed, but as of now it's not so it's ok to use it. That was as fair an article on that little sequence as you're gonna find, I think.
I tend to agree, with the exception of the title itself, and of course, the reaction it's going to stir from the rest of the nation that doesn't understand the rules.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
22,132
Pittsburgh, PA
I'd have much rather tried out Nugent's range from that distance just to see how he'd do in game conditions, and saved this sort of thing for situations where it actually might matter
 

OurF'ingCity

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 22, 2016
8,469
New York City
So could the Patriots have theoretically just kept doing the same thing over and over again, each time daring Gase to finally accept the penalty? If so then Belichick really didn't even exploit the loophole as much as he could have.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,797
I'd have much rather tried out Nugent's range from that distance just to see how he'd do in game conditions, and saved this sort of thing for situations where it actually might matter
This is what I thought; eventually we are probably going to need Nugent to hit a 45+ yard kick and I'd like to see him make one in a low-stakes game environment.
 

BrazilianSoxFan

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 11, 2006
3,751
Brasil
So could the Patriots have theoretically just kept doing the same thing over and over again, each time daring Gase to finally accept the penalty? If so then Belichick really didn't even exploit the loophole as much as he could have.
I was under the impression that one more penalty and the refs would give them an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty. Since it's a 15 yarder, Gase would probably accept.
 

Red Right Ankle

Formerly the Story of Your Red Right Ankle
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
11,978
Multivac
I was under the impression that one more penalty and the refs would give them an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty. Since it's a 15 yarder, Gase would probably accept.
Yes, they mentioned that on the telecast after the false start - I think Booger said something like, "One more and the refs give them a 15 yarder."
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,837
AZ
So could the Patriots have theoretically just kept doing the same thing over and over again, each time daring Gase to finally accept the penalty? If so then Belichick really didn't even exploit the loophole as much as he could have.
Back in the Atlanta Super Bowl there was a play that surprised a lot of people. The Falcons went to punt with about 50 seconds or more left on the clock and they took a delay of game penalty. Then they wound the clock and the quarter ended before the punt.

I think that kind of brought this issue to national attention. I didn't know the rule was that if the clock is moving when a pre-snap penalty is committed the clock gets rewound until 2:00 left. Even Buck was surprised as I recall that game. It was a bit of a perfect storm, because ordinarily who ever looks at the clock. The fact that it was right at the end of the quarter in the Super Bowl and was a delay of game penalty caused some media attention as I recall.

One of the questions was whether you could just continually take delay of game penalties to cause the other team to use a time out to keep the clock from running all the way to 2:00 warning. Imagine a team is punting from its one yard line and has a big lead. Why not? You can take infinite half the distance penalties.

In the aftermath, it was clarified that this kind of time abuse can be a 15 yard penalty. And John Parry last night mentioned in the booth that it would be 15 yards if Belichick did it again. I think the rule may even have been clarified to permit an official to stop the clock for timing delays, which make sense. Because in the half the distance situation on fourth down, even a 15 yard penalty is no big deal.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,664
Back in the Atlanta Super Bowl there was a play that surprised a lot of people. The Falcons went to punt with about 50 seconds or more left on the clock and they took a delay of game penalty. Then they wound the clock and the quarter ended before the punt.

I think that kind of brought this issue to national attention. I didn't know the rule was that if the clock is moving when a pre-snap penalty is committed the clock gets rewound until 2:00 left. Even Buck was surprised as I recall that game. It was a bit of a perfect storm, because ordinarily who ever looks at the clock. The fact that it was right at the end of the quarter in the Super Bowl and was a delay of game penalty caused some media attention as I recall.

One of the questions was whether you could just continually take delay of game penalties to cause the other team to use a time out to keep the clock from running all the way to 2:00 warning. Imagine a team is punting from its one yard line and has a big lead. Why not? You can take infinite half the distance penalties.

In the aftermath, it was clarified that this kind of time abuse can be a 15 yard penalty. And John Parry last night mentioned in the booth that it would be 15 yards if Belichick did it again. I think the rule may even have been clarified to permit an official to stop the clock for timing delays, which make sense. Because in the half the distance situation on fourth down, even a 15 yard penalty is no big deal.
The solution is to simply not start the game clock after a penalty. Have it start at the next snap. Have that be the rule; it would take care of the problem immediately.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,330
Hingham, MA
Back in the Atlanta Super Bowl there was a play that surprised a lot of people. The Falcons went to punt with about 50 seconds or more left on the clock and they took a delay of game penalty. Then they wound the clock and the quarter ended before the punt.

I think that kind of brought this issue to national attention. I didn't know the rule was that if the clock is moving when a pre-snap penalty is committed the clock gets rewound until 2:00 left. Even Buck was surprised as I recall that game. It was a bit of a perfect storm, because ordinarily who ever looks at the clock. The fact that it was right at the end of the quarter in the Super Bowl and was a delay of game penalty caused some media attention as I recall.

One of the questions was whether you could just continually take delay of game penalties to cause the other team to use a time out to keep the clock from running all the way to 2:00 warning. Imagine a team is punting from its one yard line and has a big lead. Why not? You can take infinite half the distance penalties.

In the aftermath, it was clarified that this kind of time abuse can be a 15 yard penalty. And John Parry last night mentioned in the booth that it would be 15 yards if Belichick did it again. I think the rule may even have been clarified to permit an official to stop the clock for timing delays, which make sense. Because in the half the distance situation on fourth down, even a 15 yard penalty is no big deal.
I remember the play from the Super Bowl, clearly, but I don't remember it getting ANY attention after the game. Otherwise wouldn't the competition committee have fixed it, like they did with the NYG too many men issue?
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
54,039
The solution is to simply not start the game clock after a penalty. Have it start at the next snap. Have that be the rule; it would take care of the problem immediately.
You can't do that either though. The offense could commit a penalty to stop the clock in a situation where they're trailing and out of TOs.
 

Bowhemian

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 10, 2015
5,771
Bow, NH
I'd have much rather tried out Nugent's range from that distance just to see how he'd do in game conditions, and saved this sort of thing for situations where it actually might matter
Well then BB would have been accused of running up the score.
That's why teams typically go for it on 4th down in similar situations when leading by a large margin. Field goals are nearly guaranteed points, 4th down conversions have a much lower success rate.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,664
You can't do that either though. The offense could commit a penalty to stop the clock in a situation where they're trailing and out of TOs.
Sure they could. But then they'd be penalized. Which I'm sure they'd be happy to take, but oh well.
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,209
306, row 14
Having the clock stop on accepted penalties but run on declined penalties in those situations seems like a way to fix that particular loophole.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,837
AZ
I remember the play from the Super Bowl, clearly, but I don't remember it getting ANY attention after the game. Otherwise wouldn't the competition committee have fixed it, like they did with the NYG too many men issue?
I think that's exactly what happened here. Right after the Super Bowl, the competition committee proposed a rule to make it unsportsmanlike conduct to manipulate the game clock by taking multiple penalties on the same down.

It's number 14 here and I believe the owners adopted it later that year: https://operations.nfl.com/updates/the-game/2017-playing-rules-proposals/

I don't know whether the Super Bowl punt was the catalyst -- I think the Ravens or someone else did some tricky stuff earlier in the year -- but I remember there being discussion and surprise after the game that you could take a delay of game and the clock would still run.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
42,055
You can't do that either though. The offense could commit a penalty to stop the clock in a situation where they're trailing and out of TOs.
If they were inside of 2 minutes and didn't have any timeouts, there would be a 10 second run off in that situation.

Yesterday was a weird perfect storm, 10 or so minutes left, blowout game, BB didn't want to run up the score, but wanted to run the clock down. Gase played into his hand a little, and there you have it.

The only thing I would have liked more is if Bill took the 15 yarder and then another 15 yarder, and continued to run time off the clock. They were punting from like the 31. Punting from their own 39 would have given Bailey even more room to kick. But, I think after the 1st 2 declined penalties and a minute or so off the clock, BB had made his point.
 

Mugsy's Jock

Eli apologist
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 28, 2000
15,106
UWS, NYC
In an Atlanta Constitution article about Matt Bryant getting released by the Falcons, which went on to recount his great Falcons career and pivotal role in some of the franchise's greatest victories ever, I was delighted to come across this reference:

We reference a previous game against Seattle. On Jan. 13, 2013, the top-seeded Falcons blew a 20-point lead in the Georgia Dome. Marshawn Lynch scored with 31 seconds remaining to put the Seahawks ahead 28-27. Twenty-three seconds later, the Falcons were back in front, this time to stay.

A Ryan pass to Harry Douglas for 22 yards. A Ryan pass to Tony Gonzalez for 19 more. Bryant from 49 for the win. Moneyball. Would have been good from 59.

What would have been the worst lost in Falcons’ history — 28-3 was four years and three weeks from happening — became the second-greatest victory in team annals, trailing only the upset of 15-1 Minnesota in the Metrodome for the NFC title. Ryan and Bryant — closers extraordinaire.
The casual-yet-poignant reference to "28-3" says everything. They've been scarred for life.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/mark-bradley/sad-sign-the-times-the-falcons-cut-matt-bryant/hSVtGnffUDvKIAEHno4yhO/
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
27,087
Newton
Basically it's saying if the Bills win the East they should declare a national holiday.
I guessed that much from the link.

BTW, this isn't so much a Nation's Tears piece--there's very little salt if any--as a really funny piece for the Celebrating What Is thread. Some highlights:
Tom Brady is finally looking his age (a handsome 89) as he struggles to connect with another iffy set of wide receivers the Patriots appear to have found on Etsy.
Meanwhile, the NFL is investigating yet another claim of Patriots cheating shenanigans, and the irritated and anxious New England fandom is behaving like Cape Cod will be closed next summer.

Let’s get some perspective here. There are at least 28 or so teams in the NFL which would love to have the Patriots’ problems. Caution is advisable. New England motivationally feasts on predictions of their demise. We heard a lot of “End is Nigh” speculation around this time last year, and then the Patriots went on to win their nine billionth Super Bowl.
Buffalo isn’t a perfect club—they’ve beaten a lot of middling teams on their way to their first 10-win season since Bill Clinton was in office—but they’re feisty, and they’re just one game in the standings behind the Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain, Bill Belichick.
The league wants to know why a Pats staffer was videotaping the sideline of a Bengals game a week before New England’s game with Cincinnati. This is suspicious because A) it was the Patriots and B) who on earth wants to watch tape from a Bengals game?
 

Ed Hillel

Wants to be startin somethin
SoSH Member
Dec 12, 2007
43,973
Here
Does that dude realize the Patriots still win the division if they beat Miami?

Ok, just saw the second link and he does.
 

Mollyspop

New Member
Sep 21, 2019
23
Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain - funny image, that immediately conjured up the image of another lobster boat captain/Boston champion...

On a different note, I wonder - has any SOSH'er ever compared BB to Ahab? Probably a treasure trove of images and funny retellin of Moby Dick through the eyes of a Patriot Queequeg. Which player would be Queequeg? Which one would be Ishmael? Is Goodell Moby Dick?
 

scottyno

late Bloomer
SoSH Member
Dec 7, 2008
11,339
I mean, I did think Allen got facemasked on the sneak. Oh well.
and shelton got mugged on literally the next play, the long pass that set the bills up 1st and goal, strangely he doesn't mention that one though
 
Last edited:

DeadlySplitter

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 20, 2015
33,543
it was funny seeing 2 of the 3 NFL Network "analysts" pregame pick the Bills.

we should have blown the Bills out. what are you smoking?
 

BigSoxFan

Member
SoSH Member
May 31, 2007
47,217
it was funny seeing 2 of the 3 NFL Network "analysts" pregame pick the Bills.

we should have blown the Bills out. what are you smoking?
Feel like Steve Smith never picks Pats. Likely residual bitterness from SB 38 and 2014 Div Round.
 

JMDurron

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
5,128
Feel like Steve Smith never picks Pats. Likely residual bitterness from SB 38 and 2014 Div Round.
I also got the sense in the postgame show that he and Willie M. have the kind of relationship where Smith is disinclined to agree with Willie on a pick for the sake of friendly competition.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,543
Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain - funny image, that immediately conjured up the image of another lobster boat captain/Boston champion...

On a different note, I wonder - has any SOSH'er ever compared BB to Ahab? Probably a treasure trove of images and funny retellin of Moby Dick through the eyes of a Patriot Queequeg. Which player would be Queequeg? Which one would be Ishmael? Is Goodell Moby Dick?
BB is Moby Dick. Everyone else is Ahab.