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Intentional grounding, which marks the ball at the spot of the foul and might still include a 5 second count off inside the two minute warning.

Which still would have left about three ticks on the clock. Collinsworth can be stupid, but not completely. The question is whether or not the kicker could have handled a field goal from that far back.

In any event, the calls in both games yesterday were downright pathetic. The fighting from both the Niners and the Giants down the strech was not only unconscionable, but hopefully fineable. I hope those officials get fined by the League office as well - stupid stuff like not calling a delay of game (in the Steelers-Browns game) on Cleveland was nuts (and I wanted the Browns to win!), and I won't even go into that mess at Candlestick.

At least there was decent competition yesterday (as opposed to the Falcons and Jets blow-outs on Saturday).

I enjoyed watching both games yesterday -- even tho' I wasn't rooting for the Steelers, it was really exciting ! That poor Browns guy (Andre King??) struggling to make it back to his feet and stretching in a vain attempt to get the ball over the sideline as the seconds ticked off was so dramatic -- I could hear the "Chariots of Fire" music in my head as they showed it in slo-mo

stupid stuff like not calling a delay of game (in the Steelers-Browns game) on Cleveland was nuts...

Seemed to me there were a couple of plays where the Browns were given a 47 second clock....and they used all 47 seconds. ;o)

After this weekend, I'm kinda hoping we get a 17-14 type of game this upcoming weekend.....maybe Pitt vs. Tenn.

There were only 6 seconds on the clock when the ball was snapped, if the bad snap-control-stand up-spike takes more than 1 second (plus whatever fraction of a second was there that the NFL doesn't show... I love that BTW) then the 5 second count off ends the game. But don't quote me, I'm not sure the 5 second count off is still there.

I think the missed delay of game penalty was the result of two things: 1 - the Browns had been called for it a lot already, I think even the refs were having a hard time believing these guys were so bad at counting to 45; 2 - "all star" refing squads, the NFL assembles reffing squads for the playoffs from "the best" in the league during the regular season (where they work as a unit, same 8 guys for 17 weeks) you see a lot of confusion as refs are used to guy X looking for "that" but guy X isn't there. I'd bet none of the 8 zebras on the field in Pittsburgh were the designated clock watcher for their group. The Steelers did a good job of pointing it out most of the time though ;)

So, speaking of strange calls, what would the call be on this play:

Steelers vs. Bears, Steelers' ball on the Bears' 43, Bears up 24-20. Kordell Stewart, in relief of Tommy Maddox, takes the snap under center, and hands it off to Bettis, who hands it off to Randle-El in a reverse. Randle-El then fires a forward pass to Stewart, who catches it, and takes it to the end zone as time runs out in the 4th quarter.

As much as I'd hate to say it, it looks as if the Bears have lost this one in a heartbreaker. Am I right?

Speaking of that, it reminded me of the worst announcer -- Phil Simms. Simms NEVER argues with the refs. Ever. On that play he first said that they got the ball off on time and then said, "well, the officials look down at the ball and then up at the clock so sometimes you have a half a second." He's a total apologist for the officials every single time.