News flash: It has been done before, on purpose, by Buddy Ryan, and was called the Polish Defense. See the link earlier in the comments.

Maybe it should be spot foul or half the distance, whichever is further from the end zone. So, if at the opponents’ 40 and you interfere at the 5, the ball goes to the 20 instead of the 5. It might require a little math in some cases, but you already have a ref in the replay booth, he could have a calculator ready as well.

The clock also rolls back to the pre snap time if there are less than two minutes in the game.

There are a couple penalties that need re-working and this is one of them. It should be, as others have stated, active in the last 2 minutes of either half. You get the result of the play or 5 yards and time back on the clock. If it’s more than 12 men, it’s 15 yards and time back on the clock. The other penalty that needs tweaking is OPI/DPI. If the offense commits a penalty to prevent a pick, it’s only 10 yards. If a defender commits a penalty to prevent a TD, it’s a spot foul. You either have to go the college route and do 15 yards or keep the spot foul but make OPI harsher (10 yards and loss of down like grounding).

Teams are not going to line up 15 on defense for the purpose of having extra pass rushers without losing any defensive backs or anything like that. Sure you give up 5 yards for X seconds off the clock, and in the last 2 minutes time is what matters. But there is a line of respect for self, the coaching fraternity and respect for the game. They are not going to do even 12 on purpose.

Before you start crying about fake injuries or filming signals…. The fake injuries is in every teams “playbook” Its like the phantom tag or drawing the offensive foul call. Filming a teams signals during a game is no different then having the backup QB who used to play for the opponent yell out the calls or learning the calls or reading lips of the coach during the game. If you are too stupid to disgiuse them that is your fault.

So throw in a rule for the fun of it, 15 yards if you have too many men after 2 minutes. But dont think you fixed a major flaw by doing so.

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They have to try and make it look good….like when two of them fell down at the same time…one of them had to get up

It’s Cruz & Manningham at the Grammys.

I said it was a non story until they were ready to look at the rules…yeah.

Too much tinkering with the rules. The game is not broken and doesn’t need this constant ‘fixing’.

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I don’t think some of you understand the problem. If the defense has more than 11 guys on the field, they have an unfair advantage. That advantage is greater to them than the loss of 5 yards is a help to the offense (especially if the offense also loses time off the clock). In this case, the play in question wasn’t the last play, so your first point is moot.

To take this to an extreme, to try to clarify the point. Assume the offense gets the ball on their own 20 with 30 seconds left. The defense throws 15 guys on the field. Nearly impossible for the offense to gain any yardage. Sure, they get 5 yards, but at the expense of 8 seconds it takes to run the play. A few plays later, there are 6 seconds left, you are still only at your 35, and have to try a Hail Mary. Without the extra guys, you may have gotten some completions and been at the other teams 25; much better position. If you can’t get why the concern from that extreme example, you never will.

The problem with the “just spike the ball”, is that the spike still loses you a second or two, depending on the clock operator. And, if the refs happen to not see it, you wasted a down and time for nothing. Your team can’t challenge it at that point to prove the defense had 12 guys. Plus, at that point, a QB should be doing something other than counting defensive players (like reading the defense) in the hopes they have 12.

“When the defense commits a too many men on the field penalty with under 2 minutes left on the clock in either half, the offensive team has the option to accept the penalty (or not) and to have the time clock adjusted to the time left when the ball was snapped (or not).”

Two decisions for the offense: do you take the penalty? If yes, do you take the time back?

If it likely to be yes and yes, unless they converted the “free play” for a bigger gain.

Why is it needed? If a defender can let time run off the clock by committing a 5 yard penalty, why not do it in the scenario where time much more valuable than a few yards? Nobody is saying the Giants did that, just that it is a loophole that COULD be misused.

You could say that it should be applied to other defensive penalties as well, but I say only apply it to 12-men on the field, since that penalty occurs at the snap of the ball anyway. For example if there is a long play ending with a horse collar tackle, the offense should get the 15 yards but the time back, since the tackle did not take place at the snap, obviously.

It’s time for a change.

The Giants cheated to win.

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Elaborate.

Too much tinkering with the rules. The game is not broken and doesn’t need this constant ‘fixing’.

The NFL needs to stop over-reacting.

http://smartfootball.com/defense/buddy-ryans-polish-goalline-tactic