Vikings hack the spike play to get one more snap

Trailing by 1 and the clock running with mere seconds left, the Vikings raced to the line to get a quick snap and a spike of the ball to stop the clock. There were flags on the play as the Vikings did not have 7 players on the line, which is an illegal formation foul.

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— fzclips (@fzclips) October 20, 2024

When there is a running clock inside the 2-minute warning, a certain suite of time-conserving fouls by the offense will include a 10-second runoff. Primarily, these are snap-killing fouls, intentional grounding, and illegal forward passes. Referee Clay Martin was clear to point out in his announcement that an illegal formation is considered a live-ball foul and therefore there is no 10-second runoff. The reason for that is that it does not conserve time because the play is allowed to continue and it doesn’t terminate a live play like an incomplete pass that was illegally thrown. As long as the offense has been set, we have a legal snap.

OK, I know you are zipping ahead to a big question. We’re getting there.

This play happened before in 2006 when the St. Louis Rams were leading the Seahawks, and the Seahawks did not present a legal formation. The referee that day was Ed Hochuli.

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— fzclips (@fzclips) October 20, 2024

In one case, an illegal shift will convert to a false start when it’s inside the 2-minute warning with a running clock. The thinking is that the hurrying offense aren’t truly set if they are still moving, even if they paused for a full second. A player illegally on or off the line is not that type of foul that the Competition Committee felt rose to the level of not being properly set.

So this was correctly called, and the Vikings had one second remaining on the clock, confirmed by replay, 5 yards back from the spot of the snap. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold was sacked on the final play, so the extension was moot. But it raised a lot of questions.

So, you just need a snapper and a quarterback on the line?

In a technical sense, this means that you just need a snapper on the line and a player behind the line to receive the snap and that’s it. The remaining 9 players just have to be set for one second prior to the snap, even if they are in the backfield. And, you don’t even need to have a center snap the ball. A receiver or a tight end can legally snap the ball as long as they are on the line of scrimmage. In this case, the formation is already illegal, so the fact that the player is an interior lineman and an eligible receiver at the same time is still within the envelope of a foul. Similarly, the snap receiver can be anyone, not necessarily the quarterback.

UPDATE 11/11: There is a caveat to this scenario, and in a video circulated to the teams, the league said that players have to be in “close proximity” to the line of scrimmage. This is interpreted to be approximately 5 yards behind the line, but they acknowledge a fullback might sometimes be 7, so toward the middle of the field there will be more leeway. But this does allow the slowest lineman to just get near the line of scrimmage and set as the rule is currently written. It’s expected this rule will be looked at both for the lack of a runoff and a clearer definition as to the “proximity” to the line of scrimmage.

Up until last year, “any other foul that intentionally stops the clock” was listed as a time-conserving foul subject to a 10-second runoff. An argument could be made that under last year’s rulebook, a referee could determine that having 2 players on the ball in formation would qualify as “any other foul” because the offense would be able to snap the ball much earlier than they would ordinarily be capable.

For more on the rules for 10-second runoffs, bookmark our post below. For more on the palpably unfair act, Quirky Research has a post.

A previous version of this post referenced that the palpably unfair act rule could apply, but that paragraph was removed with the league interpretation being added.