[mplagrow]

I went to bed confused, last night, as to why the QB would think that setting the ball on the ground constituted giving himself up. Not until I saw the rear angle of the play could I actually tell that he did, in fact, down the ball. Whether he did or not is really a moot point, because the ref blew the whistle. To me, the officiating crew seemed completely unaware of the time left, as there was no urgency to retrieve the ball and set it for play. Watch the umpire's actions and body language after the whistle. While casually asking for the ball, he stopped and chatted with another Arizona lineman. Then he raised his hand and made the offensive line wait. Is there any way that they could have stopped and conferred instead of dashing off the field, to make sure they got it right?