Time Out

Let me start by saying that Janikowski hitting the top of the upright from 52 yards was pretty impressive. Now that I got that out of the way, I'll get on topic.

There was nothing wrong with the way the Denver Broncos handled the OT TO situation. It was within their rights by the rules. That's the problem. Mike Shanahan should not have been allowed to call a TO. The defensive team should NEVER be allowed to call time out when the offense is attempting a field goal to win a game (a go-ahead FG with less than 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter or at any point in OT). I'm not pro-Raiders or anti-Broncos ... quite the contrary, the Broncos are one of my favorite NFL teams (I was a big Elway fan growing up and my wife grew up in Colorado Springs). I'm also not pro-kickers. I am, however, against "icing the kicker". I don't know if it works ... frankly, I don't really care. If you make a rule against it, it saves everyone a few minutes because they don't have to sit through ANOTHER time out.

Why should it only be on a game-winner? The defense should retain the right to use their time outs earlier in the games because they may be caught out of position on a potential fake FG. Maybe, just before the snap, a defensive player will see that one of the offensive players is lined up just in-bounds along the sideline without a defender quarding him. They could call a TO to prevent an easy first down. You don't see coaches using TO's to "ice" kickers early in games. Why? Apparently, the TO is more valuable than the potential advantage gained by letting the kicker think about his shot a little while longer.