Don’t call it home-field advantage for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But the Minnesota Vikings were on the wrong end for their final drive and couldn’t complete the comeback. Taking a key delay of game penalty on 4th-and-12 from their own 37, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell blamed a missing play clock as the reason for the team’s confusion.
“We were dealing with the play clock,” O’Connell said in his post-game presser courtesy of the team’s Twitter/X account. “It was the unique thing about coming to play here, and then you find out about three minutes before the kickoff that that end zone’s game clock and play clock would be turned off for the day.”
Fans at home can easily watch the play clock on the score bug. Players have no such luxury. Instead, NFL stadiums have play clocks low and behind the end zone so offenses, primarily quarterbacks, can keep track of the time (here’s one such example). Evidently, Croke Park either didn’t have the capability or there was a decision to turn off the clocks. If it were the latter, it would be hard to understand the rationale.
Here’s a look at the moment. The play clock clearly shows zero as Minnesota shows no urgency to get the snap off. An already difficult 4th-and-13 turned into a 4th-and-18. QB Carson Wentz threw over the middle, but his pass was tipped away by SS DeShon Elliott, securing the Steelers’ win. You can even see the end zone that didn’t have the clock that other stadiums would.
“The coach/quarterback kind of system kind of went out there at 15 seconds,” O’Connell said. “Normally, that clock right in front of the quarterback is kind of registering, ‘I gotta get going.’ It was just precious time lost.”
The system O’Connell referred to is the communication between the play-caller and the quarterback. By NFL rule, it gets turned off when there are 15 seconds left on the play clock.
O’Connell called the issue a “critical penalty.”
Visiting the stadium Saturday was on Minnesota’s to-do list, a stark contrast to Pittsburgh, which made no such pre-game trip. It’s not fully clear if the Vikings were able to visit the day before, but getting a feel for the layout of the stadium, including clock location, is one component of an away venue. It seems Minnesota was either told or assumed there would be an on-field clock for the game.
Croke Park has the fixings of an NFL stadium. Good grass. Big capacity. Heck, the NFL’s new virtual measurements were still able to be used, though they counted in inches and not centimeters. It was just missing a clock.
O’Connell will hope for better luck next week. Minnesota is the NFL’s first team to play back-to-back international games in different countries, leaving for London to take on the Cleveland Browns in Week Six. The Vikings will look for a clock and a win, two things they didn’t have Sunday in Ireland.
