League admits late-game clock error in Rams game
A late-game glitch in clock management Sunday in Detroit was costly to the Rams in their last-second 27-23 loss to the Lions.
With 2 minutes 45 seconds to play, Rams quarterback Sam Bradford scrambled out of the pocket and slid feet first near the St. Louis sideline, in-bounds. A television copy of the game broadcast showed no official signal time out, yet the game clock was stopped at 2:38.
After a few seconds, line judge Shannon Eastin signaled that the game clock was to be re-started, but by the time this actually happened, about 7 seconds had gone by.
"It was a mistake by the clock operator," a league spokesman told the Post-Dispatch. "He stopped the clock incorrectly. The officials did not signal for it to stop."
Even though the clock was mistakenly stopped at 2:38 the 40-second play clock somehow was running during that stoppage because Rams coach Jeff Fisher had to use a timeout at 2:03 to avoid getting a delay of game penalty.
Had the clock reached 2 minutes as it should have, Fisher could've run the ensuing third-down play after the 2-minute warning, instead of before. Had that been the case, Detroit coach Jim Schwartz would've had to use his last timeout before Greg Zuerlein's 46-yard field goal — which gave the Rams' a 23-20 lead — or lose 30-plus seconds of clock time.
Fisher likened it to Detroit getting an extra timeout. Clock operators are hired independently of the officiating crew — or in this case the replacement officiating crew.
As it was, Schwartz used that final timeout on Detroit's game-winning touchdown drive, which culminated in a five-yard TD pass from Matthew Stafford to Kevin Smith with 10 seconds to play.
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