Colts-Titans has bizarre first-quarter ending after officials lose track of time on ‘Thursday Night Football’

In most NFL games, the first quarter is only supposed to be 15 minutes long, but during Thursday’s game between the Colts and Titans, it actually lasted for roughly 15 minutes and three seconds. If you’re wondering how that happened, it’s because the officiating crew appeared to completely lose track of how much time was left on the game clock near the end of the first quarter. 

The craziness started after the Titans lined up for a second-and-2 play with just five seconds left in the opening quarter. At first, it looked like Ryan Tannehill was just going to let the clock run out and that’s exactly what he started to do. However, after the clock hit zero, the refs didn’t blow the play dead. 

At that point, no one knew what was going on. Several Colts defenders tried to alert the officiating crew that the quarter was over, but no one blew their whistle and since no whistle was blown, the Titans decided to run a play. If this sounds confusing, maybe the video below will clear things up. 

Even Philip Rivers was confused about what was happening!

As you can see in the clip, the first quarter had been over for nearly four seconds before Tannehill finally took the snap. It was such an odd thing to see that Fox announcer Joe Buck was absolutely incredulous that the play didn’t get blown dead. 

As the game finally went to commercial, it appeared that Derrick Henry’s one-yard gain on the play was going to stand. However, someone must have alerted the officiating crew about the situation, because once the second quarter started, the refs moved the ball back one yard, the Titans had a second-and-2 just as they did at the end of the first quarter and it was like the play never happened. 

The first quarter ended with the Titans lead 7-3. For an update on the score and to keep tabs on the game, be sure to check out our live blog by clicking here.