So after watching yesterday’s slogfest between the Vikings and Lions over at the Local Quipster’s house, we caught the overtime of Broncos vs. Oakland. We’re not sure why — the weekend of football up to that point should have been enough — but really anytime an NFL game is on we’re at least going to have an eye on it. The Raiders moved into field goal range for the Polish Menace. It was a 50-plus yarder, but when you are kicking in thin air and not under the influence of GHB, you can make a kick from a pretty long distance. Snap, hold, beautiful kick, upset victory — except for one thing. Apparently, about a tick before the snap, the Broncos called timeout. Allegedly, this was so they could get their special teams rushers a breather, which seems about as plausible as remembering “Fair Game” for the plot. Bottom line, it was very shady. SeaBass goes on to doink the next kick off the upright, and the Broncos go on to become the luckiest 2-0 team in the NFL. New rule: After a certain point, much like a batter trying to call time in baseball, you lose your right and must play on. Mike Shanahan — who is terrific on “Scrubs,” by the way — could have called that timeout 5 seconds earlier and achieved the same desired “rest.” Icing the kicker is one thing; cheating a team out of a victory is another. Now, we know two things you might be thinking: 1) Janikowski could have easily missed the first kick and made the second, or made both kicks, thus rendering Shanahan’s infantile strategy useless. Yeah, we get that. But it doesn’t change what happened. 2) How is this different than the Vikings running to the line of scrimmage and spiking the ball to avoid a replay challenge? We’re not sure, but it’s an instinct. The Vikings’ move was sneaky-smart; the Broncos’ move was sneaky-cheap. That’s just our $.02, however.

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