Officials to allow defenses to catch up to hurry-up
Oct. 6, 2006
By Clark Judge
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
I can't recall a season where I saw so many teams run the no-huddle offense. Neither can the NFL, and now it has had to respond to the practice to assist defenses unable to make necessary substitutions -- which, consequently, left them at a competitive disadvantage.
Earlier this week the league's vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira, sent a memo to the NFL's 32 clubs notifying them that officials would start acting to prevent offenses from gaining competitive advantages by making last-second personnel changes.
In essence, offenses must now allow defenses sufficient time to make corresponding player substitutions.
Let me explain: I'm sure you've seen the no-huddle or hurry-up offense when the Colts play. Or New England. But last weekend, even San Diego resorted to the hurry-up strategy with last-minute subs, rushing to the line of scrimmage when quarterback Philip Rivers saw Baltimore starting to make a defensive change.
What the Chargers did wasn't illegal. In fact, it was part of a growing trend that's become all too common in the NFL. Your offense assembles shortly after one play, runs one or two subs on to the field, then hurries to the line of scrimmage.
The defense, suddenly confronted with a new offensive setup, tries to respond by rushing its own subs on the field -- but often it's too late, forcing it to take a penalty or to use one of its timeouts.
It happened last weekend in the Indianapolis-New York Jets game, but get this: It was the Jets that caught Indy short-handed. Running the no-huddle, they would substitute personnel, then have quarterback Chad Pennington rush to the line of scrimmage before the Colts could respond.
Indianapolis was forced to call a timeout.
"The only provision in the recent rulebook is for defenses to foul and void the play," said Pereira. "So defenses were put in a very difficult predicament."
Competitive advantages caused by hurried substitutions have been subjects of discussion at recent meetings of the league's competition committee, but the NFL felt compelled to act after this season's spate of activity -- with offenses adopting the hurry-up offense to catch opponents off guard.
Running a hurry-up or no-huddle offense is OK. But when offenses rush substitutes on to the field and hurry to the line of scrimmage -- specifically to outman surprised opponents -- it's a competitive advantage, and the league wanted to end the practice.
And how does it do that? From now on, the umpire will stand over the football and won't hand it to the center until he gains a signal from the referee that the defense has had sufficient opportunity to make a personnel change. Then, play will resume as usual.
"This wasn't directed at any one team," said Pereira. "This is something we talked about for a long time."
