Mike Evans Injury, 10-Second Runoff Setting Dangerous Precedent for NFL

The late afternoon game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and St. Louis Rams came to a bizarre and dangerous conclusion.

After Rams quarterback Austin Davis led his team down the field, kicker Greg Zuerlein hit the go-ahead field goal putting the Rams up 19-17. That kick left the Bucs a mere 38 seconds of time to work with. With less than a minute to go, quarterback Josh McCown stepped under center and started to drive the ball down the field.

In the waning moments of a stormy night in Tampa, McCown hooked up with rookie wide receiver Mike Evans on a 29-yard strike. A strike that was good enough to position the Buccaneers for a game-winning field-goal attempt from the Rams' 32-yard line.

Instead of rushing up to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball and give kicker Patrick Murray a chance, Evans was unable to get off the field after enduring a wicked hit from Rams safety T.J. McDonald. Since the Bucs didn't have a timeout to use, by rule there had to be a 10-second runoff.

Here is what the NFL rulebook has to say on the matter:

"

If an excess team timeout is charged against a team in possession of the ball, and time is in when the excess timeout is called, the ball shall not be put in play until the time on the game clock has been reduced by 10 seconds, if the defense so chooses.

"

That runoff chewed the clock down to zero, leaving the entire team flabbergasted at what just took place. The problem with that rule is that it sets a dangerous precedent in the NFL. Players want to win, and understanding that you can deliver menacing blows late in games to try and generate a runoff is a real threat to the NFL's ideology of "protecting its players." 

Whether the Bucs would have won the game or not is immaterial. As a unit they struggled in all facets of the contest, which gave the Rams a chance to steal a victory. Blaming Evans or the refs for the loss isn't fair either. The only thing we can take away from this situation is that the NFL now has an opportunity to adjust this rule to better protect the players.

The problem is this goes both ways. If the NFL was to tweak the runoff rule, allowing the clock the stop because of an injury, you can be sure that players on the offensive side of the ball would take advantage of that.

You don't really hear much about flopping in professional football, but that dreadful word may come into play if that becomes the case. The NFL will have to figure out a way to fix it, that way teams can't exploit a loophole.

Injuries are always going to be a major problem in a collision sport like football. That's why rule changes have been made over the years to ensure the safety of the players. The unconventional runoff situation that went down in Tampa highlights while this rule is one of many that has to be revisited in the offseason.

Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information courtesy of ESPN.com.