clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

We're going to try to explain the ending of Broncos-Browns regulation for you, but it's hard

The NFL is incredibly confusing.

The Broncos beat the Browns on a Brandon McManus field goal in overtime, but how they got there was rather confusing.

Emmanuel Sanders appeared to make a gorgeous catch with under ten seconds left in a tied game in regulation:

The Broncos didn't have any timeouts, so the clock stayed running. Denver needed to get up to the line of scrimmage, either for a fire drill field goal or a spike to stop the clock.

But Sanders felt he hadn't been touched and sprinted into the end zone, hoping to get a touchdown. This made it impossible for them to clock it. Sanders fell to the ground holding his collarbone, perhaps hoping for an injury timeout. Meanwhile, the clock kept running, and eventually hit zeroes. It looked like Sanders' blunder after his highlight had cost the team a shot at a win in regulation, and sent the game into overtime.

But upon further review, the pass was ruled incomplete:

The ball does touch the ground there with its nose, and Sanders was not in control of it. So the pass was incomplete and the game went into overtime for regular reasons.

* * *

SB Nation presents: The NFL still doesn't know what a catch is