Southern Cal 26, Washington 20 (final)

[BB73]

The real problems were 1) the clock ran from 5 seconds down to 2 after the receiver was down. That caused 2) Willingham to rush onto the field and grab the attention of the officials which caused 3) the officials to have an impromptu conference regarding the clock (why they couldn't ask the replay official for the correct clock at that point I don't understand) which caused 4) Washington to not know when the clock was going to start.

With 2 seconds left, a quick snap at the whistle could still allow a spike followed by a clock stoppage. I've seen plenty of games where only one second runs off after a spike.

There was also a point at 0:34 where the clock was stopped after a timeout. Washington received a false start penalty, but the clock started to wind and stopped at 0:32. Since the ball should've never been in play, the clock should've gone back to 0:34. The TV seemed to show it stay at 0:32 for the next play, but maybe the TV was just wrong.

I'm curious to know, does the Pac-10 use home team clock keepers, or do they go with a neutral party like the Big Ten?

I agree with you about the stoppage after the first down. It doesn't happen instantaneously, but in a situation like that where the team's racing against the clock and it's clearly a first down, that clock should have been stopped by the time it said 4 seconds. Then Washington would have been ready to run a play or spike it after a normal move-the-chains stoppage. The runnning down to two caused the confusion, but I believe the guy standing over the ball did the right thing once he got there.

If they went to the replay to check on the clock then, that would have been like a free timeout, and Petey (understandably) would have been even more upset.

Washington's players just had to get in position and wait. The left tackle acted like there was plenty of time.

I also recall the 34/32 second thing. I noticed that live and then forgot about it. I'm not sure if they reset those two seconds or not. At the time, I wanted Willingham to be requesting that before the next play was run. I think the TV clock was adjusted after the next play was run, but I'm not certain of that.