'Hawks, Saints, Bucs highlight crazy half-hour in NFL

	Torry Holt's dramatic 67-yard touchdown catch wasn't enough to give the Rams a win over the Seahawks. Seattle hit a last-second field goal to beat St. Louis 30-28. Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
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NEW YORK -- I am getting spoiled working for NBC. I am getting used to watching the NFL, not being in a stadium experiencing only one NFL game. Some days it's magic. Some days it's just OK. Sunday it was, in the immortal word of one Jerome Bettis, "Craaaaaaazy.'' It's the best half hour in sports when the confluence of eight early games provides yelping even among the most sober of fans. Ever hear Bob Costas yell at a TV? At a football game?

You should have been with me on Sunday. What a half hour of football. What drama. What ... what ... well, what an advertisement for NFL Sunday Ticket. And a wall of TVs, of course ... or a grand seat at a sports bar with every game on. It's what can happen only in the National Football League, on a Sunday afternoon, but only when the games are really good. And here's what happened in this half hour to remember, by my imprecise notes, trying to follow the bouncing balls on the wall of TVs in the fifth-floor NBC viewing room:

4:01 p.m.: Terrell Owens exults for a third time, on a third short touchdown. Never have so many cheered so loudly for someone so undeserving. The game stunk, but the drama was a B. Dallas 34, Houston 6.

4:05 p.m.: A few minutes after we all screamed at the Steve Smith 72-yard TD catch-and-run, the Panthers hang on to win 23-21 in Baltimore. Brian Billick looks as if he's about to vomit as the Panthers run the clock out.

4:05:30 p.m.: With Jim Leyland looking on (and not from a particularly good seat, either), the Lions preserve a 20-17 win, their first of the year, over Buffalo. Not a good football game, but some shining moments, like career games for Roy Williams and a defensive end who just won't stop, James Hall.

And now the great stuff happens, all at once, in St. Louis, Landover, New Orleans and Tampa. Someone's got to get a montage of this stuff. Maybe the NFL Network can do it. But it's got to be done. It was just too dramatic.

4:06 to 4:24 p.m.: Inside the two-minute warning in St. Louis, Marc Bulger throws a deep rainbow to Torry Holt. He's got it, he doesn't have it, he tips it up, he's got it again, and he's gone. "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'' is the cry in the viewing room. Rams up 28-27, 1:04 left. Too much time left for the Seahawks' Matt Hasselbeck?

... The Saints are starting a drive at their 15 in the Superdome, with eight minutes to go and the game tied at 24. No way they can beat the Eagles. Is there? Is there some more post-Katrina magic in this building? There's Drew Brees to Joe Horn up the left side for 20. There's life in the Saints, and the building is going wild.

... HORRENDOUS roughing-the-passer call in Tampa, giving the Bucs good field position as they drive, with a Toledo Rocket at quarterback, Bruce Gradkowski, to try to beat the hanging-on-for-dear-life Bengals at the Pirate Ship.

... And here are the Bucs at the Cincinnati 8, fourth-and-three. The Bengals are one stop away, against a rookie quarterback from the Mid-American Conference, from taking over sole possession of the AFC North from the suddenly 4-2 Ravens. One stop. Gradkowski's back, he looks left for Joey Galloway. Covered. He looks down the middle. Michael Clayton has a sliver of an opening. "Just put it on his big body and let him catch it,'' Gradkowski told me later. He puts it on his body and Clayton gloms onto it and dives for the goal line. Fumble! Incomplete! Bengals hang on! But no. Wait. The call will be reviewed. Did Clayton get the ball over the line before fumbling? The Bengals all make the  "incomplete'' motion with their arms. But it'll be reviewed.

... Brees is -- he's doing what? First down at the Eagles' 9. Two-minute warning just ended, and Brees is kneeling. The Saints are going to run out the clock and try for the field goal instead of giving Donovan McNabb the ball back. Process this. Plenty of time to get a touchdown, but you can see New Orleans coach Sean Payton's brain working. Don't give McNabb another chance. That's what he's thinking. Brees kneels. John Carney loosens.

... In Tampa, Mike Carey announces that the call is reversed. Touchdown, Bucs. Tampa leads 14-13 with 35 seconds left. Clayton celebrates.

... Hasselbeck runs to the line to spike the ball, :07, :06, :05, and he does, and Scott Linehan runs to the ref and tells him, "Illegal formation! Illegal formation!'' The ref, indeed, pulls the flag out.

... And now, will there be a 10-second runoff for an offensive penalty this late in the half? No, ref Ed Hochuli says; the illegal formation penalty is not one of those penalties that prompts the 10-second runoff rule, and so the ball is backed up to the Rams' 36. Seattle kicker Josh Brown can't make a 54-yarder, can he? He trots out, takes a couple of practice kicks and ... the snap is down, the kick is up, it's GOOD!

... Brees kneels. Carney loosens.

... Mike Holmgren looks like he has aged 20 years in 20 minutes, walking off the field.

... Timeout, New Orleans. Three seconds left. It'll be Carney from 31 yards out.

... But wait! Mark Brunell, down 25-22 to the Titans, throws a bomb up the left side intended for -- who else? -- Santana Moss, and it's picked. Two kneel-downs and Vince Young prances off the field with his first NFL win. The 0-5 Titans, hopeless, hapless, have beaten the great Gibbs in the House That Snyder Built.

... Carney swings his leg. This one's like a three-footer to Tiger Woods on the 72nd hole of Augusta. It's good. Saints win! Saints win! Payton shakes hands with Andy Reid, then runs to the end zone and slaps hands with every lunatic in the Superdome end zone who can reach over.

... Shayne Graham's 62-yard field goal try in Tampa falls short. Bucs no longer winless.

By the time it's over and we all catch our breath, the late games are on. Talk about an anticlimax. First time I look up, it's Pittsburgh 14-0.

Postscript: Sunday night, Drew Brees, speaking from Emeril's, is talking about what is happening in New Orleans. The crowd at the bar rose to give Brees and some mates an ovation, then the crowd in the entire place stood.

"I can't tell you how happy I am, we all are, to be helping this city in some small way,'' Brees said. "To be here right now, it's ... it's unimaginable. We even had some Eagles fans come up to us and congratulate us. One of them said to me: 'We hate losing, but we couldn't have been beaten by a better team, in a better city.' That made me proud.''

What a half hour. What a day.