Icing the Kicker Version 2.1

[griz8791]

Last night in the Auburn-Florida game, Urban Meyer took a time-out that he had apparently timed to the split second so the whistle would blow soon enough for the time out to count, but so late that Auburn couldn't stop the snap or the kick. I was multi-tasking at the time so I'm having to reconstruct what happened from the replay and what the commentators said about it. It sounded like Meyer deliberately delayed his time out so Auburn's kicker would have to kick the game-winning field goal twice. The replay showed Meyer standing next to the side judge, both of them watching intently, and then you could read Meyer's lips saying "now." The commentators said some other coach did this split-second time-out thing in a bowl game last year and now it is going to be all the rage. This time it didn't matter because Auburn hit the kick anyway, but I'm still troubled by it.

I've always thought using a time out to ice the other side's kicker was sort of pushing the envelope of what the rules allow. You aren't stopping the clock because you have too many guys or not enough guys or the guys you do have aren't in the right alignment. It's just one side's coach trying to intervene and take the game away from the guys on the field. I realize it's a competitive sport, not Pop Warner, but this seems like a wrinkle in the rules that I don't think anyone should be very proud of, and deliberately making the guy try to kick it twice just seems to cross a line. What does everyone else think?

[TheValleyRaider]

This has happened in the NFL twice already this season. In Week 2, Mike Shanahan and the Broncos did it to Oakland. The Raiders' kicker drilled the first FG, but the second hit the upright.

So what happens next?

Oakland does the same thing to the Cleveland Browns. The Browns hit the first FG, and then Oakland blocked the second try.

I don't necessarily care for it, but the rule's written to allow it. You'd better believe coaches are going to continue to take advantage of it now. How'd you like to be the coach who didn't try to ice the kicker in that way, and your team loses on a last-second FG? In the high-pressure world of big time football, you could have a lot of angry fans on your hands xtwocentsx

[griz8791]

I hear you. The rules allow it. I guess the question is, should the rules allow it? Maybe they have to allow it because prohibiting it would be impossible to police ("I wasn't trying to ice him, ref -- one of my guys was a quarter inch out of alignment").

[ursus arctos horribilis]

I don't see a problem with it at all as the coach is taking a gamble on this one. If he calls the time out and the kicker misses the try and then makes it on the second attempt then there will be hell to pay for calling the time out.

[UNHWildCats]

I don't see a problem with it at all as the coach is taking a gamble on this one. If he calls the time out and the kicker misses the try and then makes it on the second attempt then there will be hell to pay for calling the time out.

Ya but if the kicker or someone hears the whistle it could knock them off the concetration so i dont think a miss when a TO is called means they would have missed it had it not been called

[ursus arctos horribilis]

Ya but if the kicker or someone hears the whistle it could knock them off the concetration so i dont think a miss when a TO is called means they would have missed it had it not been called

That's a good point as well but in the case of the Raiders the first kick was successful in both of those games in spite of the whistle.

[Mountain Panther]

Last night in the Auburn-Florida game, Urban Meyer took a time-out that he had apparently timed to the split second so the whistle would blow soon enough for the time out to count, but so late that Auburn couldn't stop the snap or the kick. I was multi-tasking at the time so I'm having to reconstruct what happened from the replay and what the commentators said about it. It sounded like Meyer deliberately delayed his time out so Auburn's kicker would have to kick the game-winning field goal twice. The replay showed Meyer standing next to the side judge, both of them watching intently, and then you could read Meyer's lips saying "now." The commentators said some other coach did this split-second time-out thing in a bowl game last year and now it is going to be all the rage. This time it didn't matter because Auburn hit the kick anyway, but I'm still troubled by it.

I've always thought using a time out to ice the other side's kicker was sort of pushing the envelope of what the rules allow. You aren't stopping the clock because you have too many guys or not enough guys or the guys you do have aren't in the right alignment. It's just one side's coach trying to intervene and take the game away from the guys on the field. I realize it's a competitive sport, not Pop Warner, but this seems like a wrinkle in the rules that I don't think anyone should be very proud of, and deliberately making the guy try to kick it twice just seems to cross a line. What does everyone else think?

Or how about Bob Stoops NOT using his final TO to ice CU's kicker yesterday in Boulder? I can only guess that he DIDN'T use it because he figured CU WOULD be expecting it. Regardless, he returned to Oklahoma today with that TO in his back pocket.

[ngineer]

I think it's a scumbag move and Meyer lost my respect for such 'gamesmanship'. I don't go for conivers who probably lay awake at night dreaming up ways to bend the intent of the rules.xnonox

[Marcus Garvey]

A kick is a kick. He's trying to make it from X yards out. His chances of making the first try are exactly the same as his chances after the timeout. There's nothing "unfair" about.
Now having said that... I think the concept of "icing" the kicker is one of the most asinine moves in football. How often does it work? 1 out of every 10 gajillion times? It's annoying. Hell, once in a while it backfires. Anyone remember Andy Reid's "Icing" timeout agains the Skins on Mon. night a couple of weeks ago? Washington had no timeouts, and there was about 10 seconds left. By calling timeout to "ice" the kicker, Reid actually gave the Skins time to call a play to attempt a TD (which worked), and leave time on the board if it failed.

[JoltinJoe]

I think it's a scumbag move and Meyer lost my respect for such 'gamesmanship'. I don't go for conivers who probably lay awake at night dreaming up ways to bend the intent of the rules.xnonox

I thought you were an attorney? xsmiley_wix

A new rule is coming that will prevent the defensive team from calling a timeout once the offense has already spread into a kick formation.