In the good old days, a movie was made called It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It primarily dealt with several groups, all working to complete odd tasks, all trying to reach a huge load of money, $350,000, buried under "A Giant W!"
Sounds like a good day of football, without the small bills.
Our first upset seemed to have dropped in Atlanta, where the Chicago Bears scored a go-ahead touchdown with 11 seconds left. Bears fans rejoiced.
Right up until they realized, shoot...there's still time.
Sure enough, thanks to some quick work, Jason Elam of Denver fame nails a 48-yarder to steal the win back, 22-20.
Then, along comes the next story. Miami is playing the winless Texans, who are aching for a win. Ronnie Brown scores with less than two minutes left; and you'd think this was enough to win the game?
Not this Sunday. With the Texans calmly marching down the field, Matt Schaub got into the end zone on a scramble with three seconds left, getting the Texans off the slide.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Next up on this list wasn't really an upset...but it sure had Vikings fans sweating it out. The Vikings took on the Lions, who were also winless. The Lions actually led for a bit of this game, even after giving up the strangest safety in memory.
As fate would have it, the Vikings got in close enough for a field goal, keeping the Lions without a win...but I think if it did happen, the four horsemen would have shown up.
Next up on our list, was the million-to-one shot. Almost no one expected the Rams to win against Washington. And into the last couple minutes, the Redskins actually had to score, to make it interesting.
With the score 16-10, the Redskins took the lead on a touchdown by Clinton Portis. But then with time winding down, and extra yardage from a penalty to work against, Josh Brown nailed his fourth field goal of the game, and got St. Louis off the undefeated line.
Jacksonville had its own case to solve, taking on Denver, who was 4-1. The Jags, who had either won or lost all their games by seven or fewer points, managed to kill off enough time on the clock to eek out a seven-point win in a game filled with turnovers...five for both teams. The Jags, for their efforts, turned these into 10 points.
Then the Dallas-Arizona game. It was a tight match, and if it wasn't for an offsides penalty at the end of the game, the Cowboys might have not made overtime. But as luck would have it, they did.
Then their luck ran out.
After winning the coin toss, and getting stopped on three plays, the Cowboys tried to punt the ball away...and a player came in so fast that the lineman was kicked by the punter's foot instead of the ball...and it was recovered for a TD; Cards win against the Cowboys.
What can you say? It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world of football today.
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about 1 month ago
it was all over the news here in chicago,, they showed that the last two plays the falcons had the clock was started late, they should of never had that last second to kick anything
from about 1 month ago
I've heard that issue....at the end of the first half in Oakland, Drew Brees was calling that Timeout, when the clock hit zero.....lots of complaints that he got the Timeout off in time....but hey, chalk it up to more refs making mistakes. They're all under the microscope this year.
about 1 month ago
I disagree with Jone on this one. There are plenty of things that lose a team a game but blaming it on when the clock starts and stops is ridiculous.
about 1 month ago
I remember back in the old days, when guys like Sonny Jurgensen were still playing. There was a standing rule, that the QB had to have the final call on a Timeout....and he had about 10 seconds left in the game, and his belief, was that he could do a quick play, call a time out, and then win with a field goal.
Well, the other team thought the same way, so when he hiked the ball, everyone blitzed, and literally dogpiled on the QB. Since he couldn't get up in time to call the time out, the game ended....and shortly thereafter, the rules on timeouts was changed, just for that purpose. The starting and stopping effect is a head-scratcher as well, because some people would accuse the Raiders of running the clocks faster when the Raiders were leading. Kinda like watering down the field the night before the game so it's a sheet of ice in buffalo or New England, too.
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