A Wee Bit Bitter?

Scott Linehan is complaining about the "integrity of the 10-second runoff." He wasn't complaining about it before his St. Louis Rams lost to the Seahawks on a last second 54-yard FG. The Seahawks were flagged for an illegal formation with less than 10 seconds left ... if they'd been flagged for a false start, the game would have been over. Unfortunately for Linehan, no one was moving on the Seahawks' side of the ball.

Linehan has a point, in theory, if you don't have to attempt to have a legal formation. Linehan, as reported by the AP, came up with the idea to just have WR's Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt run a play while having the rest of the team not run downfield. If Bruce snaps it to Holt, it will be an illegal formation, but if everyone else is just standing still, there will be no runoff. Hypothetically, that is correct. However, the league doesn't need to have a 10-second runoff for normal illegal formations, such as one receiver forgetting that he needs to line up on the line of scrimmage instead of one yard back from it. The league should add an addendum to the rule preventing teams from obviously taking advantage of loopholes allowing penalties to aide the team that is penalized ... that's the reason for the 10-second runoff in the first place.

However, Linehan's timing is a little bit off. He wanted a 10-second runoff yesterday so his Rams would beat the Seahawks and remain in 1st place. The Rams weren't cheated, they just happened to lose. So, it sounds like sour grapes for Linehan ... and while he has a point, it's not one that is applicable to the recent game, so he would have been much better served to wait a few days, or weeks, before bringing light to the potential loophole.