October 6, 1997

GIANTS SURVIVE WILD GAME-ENDING PLAY

With the Cowboys trailing the Giants 20-17 and 18 seconds remaining in the game Sunday, Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman completed a 32-yard pass to tight end Eric Bjornson to the Giants’ 17-yard line. The Cowboys had no timeouts remaining and both teams scrambled to the new line of scrimmage. With one second remaining, Aikman tried to spike the ball to stop the clock and give the Cowboys a chance for a game-tying field goal try.

However, when the ball was snapped, Cowboys right tackle Erik Williams was not set and Giants defensive end Chad Bratzke was on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage. It appeared to some as if penalties were committed by both teams and would offset, giving the Cowboys a chance for the game-tying kick. But the officials correctly ruled that there cannot be defensive offsides until the offense is set. The Giants did not commit a penalty. In addition, because the Cowboys were on offense, the clock was still running, and the penalty occurred in the last two minutes of the half, 10 seconds were run off the clock and the game ended.

Following were the guidelines used by the officials to determine the final outcome of the Giants-Cowboys game:

• With one second remaining, a penalty was called on the offense because the right tackle was not set.

• Inside the last two minutes of a half, an offensive penalty results in a 10-second runoff only if the penalty occurs when the clock is still running. A false start when the clock is stopped is an example of a penalty in the last two minutes of a half that would not result in a 10-second runoff.

• Although one defender was on the offensive side of the line of scrimmage, there was no foul on the defense because the offense was not set when the ball was snapped. Otherwise, all that would be required by the offense to stop the clock in this situation would be for the center to snap the ball to the quarterback in order to produce offsetting penalties.

• If the offense had been set, an offsides penalty would have been called on the defense.