My-My-My Loophole Face

[fnordcircle]

 

[mgcolby]

Tempted to make that my new avatar...

 

[fnordcircle]

Tempted to make that my new avatar...

My favorite comment in the thread about this on reddit is this from a Jets fan:

That was Belichick having a full on hysterical meltdown from laughter actually....

 

[n1997y]

That’s his “I took a delay of game and ran a minute twenty-two off the clock with it” look.

 

[RobertWeathers]

BB is Force sensitive.

Game clock manipulation proves this

 

[nabwong]

BB probably negotiated with Roger on that sequence to get an extra compensatory 3rd pick. That’s why they let the 2nd go for Sanu.

BB: If you don’t give me a third, you’re watching 10mins of special teams.
Roger: Someone call Atlanta.

 

[Ring 6]

He was really messing with the jets. At one point the jets had a 3rd and 3 gaining nothing and had a hold and BB accepted the penalty.

 

[nabwong]

BB should have fielded the colts punt formation to get a 3rd penalty.

 

[jah]

BB should have fielded the colts punt formation to get a 3rd penalty.

I could have sworn we had guys flinching on that punt that ended up actually happening but the refs just didn't want to call it.

 

[nabwong]

I could have sworn we had guys flinching on that punt that ended up actually happening but the refs just didn't want to call it.

they would snap it and dare the refs to call it a legal formation.

 

[203Pat]

I would love to know what Ernie was saying in his earpiece.

 

[BTTA]

The official on the TV crew said that if they committed another 5 yard pre-snap penalty, they'd give them a 15 yard penalty. Anybody know the rule he was citing?

 

[XLIX]

The official on the TV crew said that if they committed another 5 yard pre-snap penalty, they'd give them a 15 yard penalty. Anybody know the rule he was citing?

I am very curious about this, especially since the Patriots technically *didn’t* commit any 5-yard pre-snap penalties.

They didn’t throw a 15 yarder against the Squealers that time they kept going offsides to block that FG, although they were on defense at the time so maybe that’s the key difference.

But yes, this is something which I’ve noticed in the past, especially in the college game, and I’ve always wondered if some coach out there would have the nerve to exploit it by, say, running (for example) 8 minutes off the clock between plays (or forcing the other team to call a time out)

 

[nabwong]

The official on the TV crew said that if they committed another 5 yard pre-snap penalty, they'd give them a 15 yard penalty. Anybody know the rule he was citing?

Yes. Committing 2 delay of game penalties will result in unsportsmanlike conduct. That's why they went with a false start on the 2nd one.

 

[BradyFixesEverything]

Need a gif of this

 

[tasmlab]

The official on the TV crew said that if they committed another 5 yard pre-snap penalty, they'd give them a 15 yard penalty. Anybody know the rule he was citing?

15 yards would've put Bailey punting from like the fifth row of seats.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

He was really messing with the jets. At one point the jets had a 3rd and 3 gaining nothing and had a hold and BB accepted the penalty.

I thought that was to put them out of FG range. Also, goes towards his trust in the D (which will pay dividends going forward - chess my man, BB is playing chess)

 

[Nehalem]

I thought that was to put them out of FG range. Also, goes towards his trust in the D (which will pay dividends going forward - chess my man, BB is playing chess)

Yeah that was my thought as well. Also the Jets might go for it on 4th and 3, but probably not 4th and 13.

 

[patchick]

Let's talk about the loophole itself. They managed to run 1:22 off the clock between 3rd & 4th downs toward the end of a game. Why haven't we seen anybody do this before? It could be huge if the game were actually close.

Will there be an emergency mid-season rule change? Was that actually BB's plan, to draw the league's attention to the loophole? And if so, why do it at a time when it doesn't actually matter rather than pulling it out of your bag of tricks to ice a tight win? (Could it be--gasp--just plain "good sportsmanship"?)

 

[PatsDeb]

Brandon Bolden was literally dancing and cracking up. It was awesome.