That fact expressed in the title clearly revealed
in the following videos:

Packers-49ers next-to-last play in week 3 of
2021 season with 16 seconds left, ball spiked
with 3 seconds left:
https://twitter.com/SportsSturm/status/1483235000401244160

Packers followed up with a 51 yard field goal
for a 30-28 win.

If the ref had been positioned perfectly & the
Cowboys had allowed the ref access to the
ball, they may have been able to snap it &
spike it before time ran out, but the Packers
began the play with 16 seconds left, not the
14 seconds left in Cowboys-49ers finale.

However, the clear difference was that the
ref in the Packers game immediately spot-
ted the ball, whereas in the Cowboys-49ers
game the ref was a mile away & ran at tur-
tle speed (exaggerating), but the Cowboys
were complicit in not making room for ...

.... the ref to get there in time, the ref also
complicit in taking too long to spot the ball,
& per one article, the ball was snapped in
time to make that last try at a TD, but Dak
spiked it rather than trying to run a play,
another mistake on Dak's part.

Cowboys-49ers last 14 seconds in 2021
Wild Card playoff loss, 17-23
https://youtu.be/raaccb1JuEQ

The article with that link to the play with
16 seconds left in the Packers-49ers game
in week 3 of the 2021 season:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/look-cowboys-fans-upset-with-old-packers-49ers-play/ar-AASUz0G

That article opens with "Cowboys fans every-
where are devastated by the way their season
came to an end this past Sunday — and this
play from earlier in the season certainly isn’t
helping them move past it."

Comment: That's referring to the video near
the top of this post. An accurate characteri-
zation of my reaction was disappointed, not
devastated, & being that the Cowboys had
question marks on their offense & defense
(giving up 11th-most rushing yards per ...

.... attempt & trailing for the entire game, &
see elsewhere for details on other areas the
Cowboys struggled in versus the 49ers, I was
disappointed they didn't get that last play in
to try for the win, but devastated? No.)

--- --- ---

observer <prohumanistfreelover@gmail.com> writes:

> If the ref had been positioned perfectly & the
> Cowboys had allowed the ref access to the
> ball, they may have been able to snap it &
> spike it before time ran out, but the Packers
> began the play with 16 seconds left, not the
> 14 seconds left in Cowboys-49ers finale.

Chris Simms pointed out something I had missed. I thought the spot was
really bad, but I didn't notice the detail that proves it.

If you review the last few seconds, look at the referee standing on the
sideline at the far side of the 25 yard line. He is the marker for where
the ball was supposed to be spotted. At the very end, he has to scramble
to the 24 to match the snap.

When the official spotted the ball, he didn't have time to spot it
correctly, so he neglected his duties and spotted it a yard in favor of
the Cowboys. Had he taken the time to spot it correctly, more time would
have run off the clock. Also, the entire offensive line would have had
to get reset, as the refs couldn't simply ignore offsides when it would
have been so blatantly obvious. There should have been laundry flying as
it was.

People who think the refs favored one team over before the last play
are right. The refs went out of their way to try to give the Cowboys
another chance to keep the game going.

With proper refereeing, IMO even 16 seconds would not have been enough
given the Cowboys' terrible execution.