Why don't coaches decline the delay of game penalties that give punters more room?

[quantumleap]

KC was on the SD 45 yard line. They intentionally let the clock run down to give them a penalty to mid-field. They did this to give the punter more room. Why didn't Norv decline the penalty since KC did this to get an advantage???

:think2:

It's not just Norv, I've seen this with most situations just like this.

 

[thecruncher]

Clearly the distance remaining on 4th down matters. Anything less than 5 yards and they're always going to accept for fear of an offsides. The possibility of a shorter distance to convert on a fake may be of mild concern at times. If you block the punt that's 5 yards closer to the goal line after accepting. Punting with more room may just be an old wives tale anyway -- maybe it matters for some punters, maybe not for others -- some like the coffin corner, which is better on a shorter kick, while some like to hang it up high and have guys run Under it, and that's maybe where certain punters have a preference, like a golfer who'd rather hit a full wedge into the pin as opposed to a 2/3rd swing.

 

[Jetplane]

crunch is right... sometimes that penalty is a big deal... mainly cuz of conversions and also decreases a chance of a fake punt.

 

[HTFDC102]

It is not a penality that can be declined.

 

[PS68]

of course it can be declined

and the whole premise, which I agree with, is that you are basically telling the other coach that he is stupidly choosing the wrong strategy. Basically it's "yeah coach X, we know you and your punter thinks it's to your advantage to have 5 more yards to work with, but we're smarter than you...you're only hurting yourself, so go ahead"...

doesn't make much sense really

 

[krk1030]

You can't decline delay or game or false starts.

 

[WormyPix]

That's right, I think all dead ball penalties can't be declined, because the play never happened? Otherwise they could just decline the penalty and they'd get the ball on downs!