Rare case of Ball Don't Lie in San Francisco...

Looked like another one the refs were going to make Green Bay the job-boys again on Sunday Night Football...

7 minutes to go, Green Bay leading San Fran 24-21.  San Fran ball...

• Questionable Roughing the Passer call -- late safety charge is a moment late.  And if that's a late shot on the QB, there was another on the Packer lineman on the touchdown drive which should've been called too!
• Then a questionable tripping call -- the Packer actually was being blocked the whole time, and his foot got the QB's knee and he went down...
• Then the turnover itself mirrored the Tuck Rule, but the only reason they got the turnover was that the ball actually went a half-yard backward.

So field goal for 27-21, about 3 min to go.

• Possible backward pass on San Francisco's first play.  Could've been second and 19...
• But the all-too-predictable touchdown, and now, no time outs and 75 yards to get.

So they get the ball in the air at the gun...

And the 51 yard field goal is.....

GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Color me shocked.

-----------

Wild Sunday in the NFL:

• Five Cliffhangers today.  Two weird things about that.  First is that they were the ONLY FIVE GAMES out of 15 so far this week to end within one score.  The other is that three of them were multiple cliffhangers -- and the fifth was a Cliffhanger with a Last Chance Miss.

1. Sunday night:  SF TD for 28-27 at 0:36.   Winning 51 yd FG at the gun.
2. Chargers at KC:  Chargers get what would be the winning TD at 0:36, but Mahomes does get Ball in the Air at the Gun.  And that's the only Last Chance Miss of the week.
3. Atlanta at Giants:  Game winner FG at the gun.
4. Baltimore at Detroit:  Detroit ties it at 1:04.  Justin Tucker gets handed a shot by the refs and makes the record 66 yard kick for the win at the gun.
5. But that has nothing on Miami at Las Vegas.  A QUAD CLIFFHANGER!  Miami gets the TD and 2 with 2 seconds left to force OT.  They trade OT field goals, and Las Vegas is 3-0 after a game winner at the OT gun.

I would have to check to see if there has ever been an NFL week with FOUR game winning field goals at the gun.

But I do know when the last Quad Cliffhanger was:  Week 4 2018:  Houston 37, Indianapolis 34.  Same general setup. Tying regulation TD 45 seconds, trading FGs under the new rule, winning FG at the gun for Houston after Indy went for it on 4th down on their 43 and missed with a half minute left.  So that could have been a five-bagger.  (Cliff X 4 LCM)

Then, of course, Week 14 2013, when Minnesota and Baltimore had five lead changes in the last 2:05 -- another quad-cliffhanger which just missed being five!

• Over bettors took a beating today.  Week PPG is at 44.26 -- if it holds under 45 and change, it'll be the lowest score for the PPG since Week 12 of 2019.  The over, as a result, went 4-11 so far.
• Interesting stat:  Five games finished within a score -- six others got a rarer distinction.  They were within one score at some point in the fourth quarter, but did not finish there.  Of the 47 games so far, only nine have done so.  Out of the 256 last year, there were 43 such games.