Running Out The Clock - Canadian Football

Canadian Football

Although Canadian football is fairly similar to its American cousin, several differences between the two codes make running out the clock much more difficult in the Canadian game:

• Teams are allowed only three downs to advance the ball 10 yards without losing possession, as opposed to four in the American game.
• The offensive team has only 20 seconds after the ball is whistled into play to start a new play, as opposed to 25 seconds in American high school football and 40 seconds from the end of the last play in college football and the NFL.
• After the three-minute warning in Canadian football, two key timing changes occur:
  • The clock stops after every play. The clock restarts when the referee whistles the ball in play after a tackle in bounds, and with the snap after an incomplete pass or a tackle out of bounds.
  • A "time count" (the same foul as "delay of game" in American football), which is a 5-yard penalty (with the down repeated) at other points in the game, becomes a loss of down penalty on first or second down and a 10-yard penalty on third down. Additionally, the referee has the right to give possession to the defensive team for repeated deliberate time count violations on third down.
• If the clock hits 0:00 between plays, Canadian teams are required to execute one final play, even if the ball has not yet been snapped. In the American game, if the clock hits 0:00, the game is over unless a play is in progress.

These differences make for radically different endgames if the team with the lead has the ball. In the NFL or NCAA, a team can run slightly more than 120 seconds (2 minutes) off the clock without gaining a first down (assuming that the defensive team is out of timeouts). In the Canadian game, just over 40 seconds can be run off.