Demise of Yankees, Bills made for fascinating theater

With a successful onside kick and a pair of game-winning 53-yard field goals, Nick Folk kept the Cowboys undefeated in 2007.

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I don't know if you'll get 24 more exciting minutes in sports than the last 24 minutes of Monday night. It's a few minutes after midnight as I write this, and my heart is still pounding.

Minute by minute, flipping between one of the best football games in recent history and one of the biggest baseball events in recent history:

11:36 p.m.: Moments after Buffalo corner Terrence McGee drops what would have been Tony Romo's sixth interception of the night in Buffalo, Romo hits Patrick Crayton for 11 yards to the Buffalo 27 with 1:22 left in a game the Bills lead 24-16. Dallas needs a touchdown and two-point conversion to force overtime, a touchdown and a miracle to win in regulation, and divine intervention, more or less, to ensure a match of unbeatens Sunday in Dallas, with 5-0 New England coming to town.

11:37 p.m.: With one out in the bottom of the ninth in the Bronx, Bobby Abreu homers off Cleveland closer Joe Borowski to pull the Yanks within two runs at 6-4 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series. Alex Rodriguez strides to the plate.

11:38 p.m.: Jason Witten drops a short throw over the middle at the Buffalo 17. Third-and-three. Game on the line. Crowd going nuts.

11:39 p.m.: One and two on A-Rod. Game on the line. Season on the line. Joe Torre's future on the line. Crowd going nuts.

11:40 p.m.: Romo converts, hitting Witten over the middle for six yards. Forty seconds left. Timeout, Dallas ... A-Rod pops a high fastball to straightaway right. Two down. A-Rod's last at-bat as a Yankee? Can't tell from his spitting and violent gum-chewing.

11:41 p.m.: Marion Barber grabs a pass over the middle against the Buffalo prevent and bowls to the 4. Timeout, Dallas, with 24 seconds left ... there's a long fly ball to right by Jorge Posada! It is high! It is far! It issssss FOUL! Just feet from an upper-deck homer that would have made it 6-5, Cleveland.

11:42 p.m.: Borowski throws a wicked sinker. Posada swings. Strike three. "The game is over!'' Chip Caray yells on TBS. Pigpile on Borowski. Yanks in shock, watching Indians celebrate on their field the way the Marlins did in winning the World Series four years earlier.

11:43 p.m.: Somehow, in a little more than three minutes on the Ralph Wilson Stadium clock, Romo has shrugged off the worst night of his career and driven Dallas 80 yards, finishing with a four-yard fastball into Patrick Crayton's gut just over the goal line. Buffalo, 24-22. Two-point conversion coming. Timeout, Dallas.

11:45 p.m.: Empty backfield for Dallas! Romo in shotgun! Buffalo lines up six rushers. Can Dallas block them all? Will Romo get the ball out in time? On the left flank, Terrell Owens lines up on cornerback Jabari Greer, runs four steps into the end zone and turns around. Romo throws a jump ball. Greer's back is to Romo. Owens leaps to catch the ball in front of his face. He's got it -- maybe! Greer rips his hands down the front of Owens' torso and the ball falls to the ground. No good! The conversion is no good! Crowd is insane. Their little-engine-that-could Bills have beaten the Dallas Cowboys!

11:46 p.m.: Not so fast. Twenty seconds left. Dallas can onside kick.

11:47 p.m.: Rookie kicker Nick Folk from Sherman Oaks, Calif., onside kicks from the Dallas 30 to the Dallas 40.5-yard line, where wideout Sam Hurd leaps high in the air and punches the ball away from a Bill. It skitters to the Buffalo 47, where third-string tight end Tony Curtis ("I always wondered where Tony Curtis went,'' Tony Kornheiser says upstairs.) gathered it in and protected it in a fetal position. Dallas ball! With two plays left to get into field goal range! The game is not over ... or is it? The replay official upstairs, Howard Slavin, asks for a review to see if the ball traveled the required 10 yards before it was touched by Hurd.

11:49 p.m.: "The ruling on the field stands,'' says ref Peter Morelli. Dallas ball, with no timeouts and 18 seconds left, on the Buffalo 47

11:50 p.m.: Romo sends Owens up the right side on a 20-yard curl and throws it up for him. Owens dives and ... there's no signal from the two nearest officials ... and finally one gives the catch-is-good signal. Mayhem. Lots of it. Players run to line, :05, :04, :03 ... Romo spikes it, :01 ... Clock stops! Cowboys have time for a 43-yard field goal! But wait! Whistles. Waving of arms. Another booth-mandated review!

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