Never heard of an NFL rule that the clock doesn't stop if a receiver goes OB.

[aurorasooner]

but goes OB backward (back toward the LOS) instead of forward (away from the LOS).
Bolts/Cincy game, and Big Limo just said that the reason the clock didn't stop while winding down to half-time even though Gresham went OB was because he was going backwards instead of forwards.
I thought going OB to stop the clock, was going OB no matter which way you were going (north or south [except in Stoolwater]), but I don't follow the exact rules that closely.

[S.PadreIsl.Sooner]

Must maintain forward progress to make the clock stop. Rule has been there forever, I think.

[BoulderSooner79]

That's the tradeoff with giving forward progress. If the player gets hit and goes backward, he gets the progress, but the play is dead there, so no OB. If the player is going backwards by himself (no hit), the clock stops, but the mark is where he goes out, not where he caught it upfield..

[bluedogok]

The NFL timing rules are really crappy, it creates situations that they really shouldn't be in. The college timing rules are better, especially when you have 50+ year old guys trying to spot a ball in a 2:00 situation and slowing the game down....all so they can try to fit the game into a 3 hour window, maybe fewer commercials and not having one before and after a kickoff would help. If the spike didn't count, then why did they leave the same amount of time on the clock after the spike?

The real problem is the NFL has so many rules anymore the officials can't keep track of all of them and fails to handle even the most basic rules.

[aurorasooner]

Just saw a similar play where Rivers threw a rainbow to a receiver near the sideline, and the receiver looked as though he was heading back towards the LOS, caught the ball and went OB. The ref ran down the sideline, crossing his hands over his head for the clock to stop, and then marked the ball on the sideline.
The forward progress explanation makes sense, but I've just never noticed it, or haven't paid any attention to the exact rule before. It seems the exact rule would take a a sideline comeback out route out of a playbook if you were trying to move the ball down the field with no time outs at the end of the half or end the game.

[BoulderSooner79]

It seems the exact rule would take a a sideline comeback out route out of a playbook if you were trying to move the ball down the field with no time outs at the end of the half or end the game.

Not really - just means the player needs to step out ASAP. The way they call it is if the player is trying to go out of bounds vs. trying to gain yards, they give them the OB. So they need to be headed sideways or back if the defender gives them a push. Simlar to the "clearly give yourself up" rule.

[East Coast Bias]

i agree the NFL rules are confusing right now, much more so than in college. Trying to decide if passes are complete is just ridiculous. And even deciding when a fumble is a fumble? In the old days the ground could not cause a fumble, now apparently not so?

[jkjsooner]

They actually call the forward progress / OOB play that way in college too. Maybe it has always been that way but I was surprised when I saw it called that way a couple of years ago.

I think even if there wasn't a rule change there was an emphasis change a few years ago in college.

[BoulderSooner79]

i agree the NFL rules are confusing right now, much more so than in college. Trying to decide if passes are complete is just ridiculous. And even deciding when a fumble is a fumble? In the old days the ground could not cause a fumble, now apparently not so?

The ground can cause a fumble in the NFL because a player is not down unless tackled. If a player falls w/o being touched, he can get up and continue. But the flip side is if he falls and fumbles w/o being touched, it's a live ball. It's always been that way and it's just a fundamental difference from college. I have no idea why the games differ in that way; maybe it's to make it easier on the refs in college so they don't have to worry if a guy is touched or not?

[ashley]

The NCAA does it their way because the consider it safer for payers.

[8timechamps]

I'd like to see some consistency in how Pass Interference is enforced. Not really the actual call (because that's almost always a judgment call), but the enforcement. I think it needs to be the same in the NFL as it is in college and high school. There are too many times that it leads to a ridiculously long penalty.

Oh, and the timing rule in the NFL has always been that way, but it (among other rules) isn't always called consistently.

[SoonerLB]

Common sense would dictate that when a player goes out of bounds the clock is stopped. Common sense would also dictate that if the ground cannot cause a fumble in the field of play, then it should not nullify a catch when the player goes out of bounds even though the player had control when he crossed the line.

The NFL is much like the government, there is no room for common sense. ;)