Fix the Rules Now

Dick Jauron became the latest coach to employ the cheap trick of calling a time out and forcing the kicking team to re-kick a last second FG. He should be the last.

I understand that changing the rules during the season could, possibly, be seen as being unfair. Outlawing those types of time out calls wouldn't be unfair in that it wouldn't give any team a competitive advantage. In a given game, the new rule could prevent a team from employing the tactic and possibly weaseling out a cheap win. But, who thought going into tonight that the Bills would be in a position where they would use the move. The NFL should make a temporary rule for the remainder of the season - it can be revisited by the rules committee during the off-season - to prevent all the coaches from looking like tactless rule-benders.

And, while they're at it, the NFL needs to look at the force out rule on catches near the sidelines. It was ruled that Terrell Owens wouldn't have come down in-bounds on a play in the second half against the Bills. He was along the left sideline and he got his left foot down in-bounds. He was pushed by a defender and his right foot (his inside foot) came down about a foot out-of-bounds. It seemed pretty obvious to me that Owens wouldn't have had any trouble getting his right foot down in-bounds. His left foot was in by a fair margin and his right foot, almost certainly, would have come down farther from the sideline than his left foot did. I don't know how both officials along the sideline blew it. But, more than that, I don't understand why that call can't be reviewed. Replay officials have a better chance of getting it right because they can slow down the play before contact and extrapolate out where the player would go if he was not interfered with.