It’s over, and so they played on

Brian Billick once won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer as his quarterback, which, amid the context of modern-day football miracles, has never received its proper due. As the San Francisco 49ers can attest.

All things even out in the end, as the Miami Dolphins can attest, so it was only a matter of time until cosmic forces conspired to balance Billick’s scale once Dilfer hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy to mark the Baltimore Ravens’ 2001 Super Bowl triumph.

That time came Sunday in Baltimore, when Billick left the field thinking his Ravens had barely beaten the Cleveland Browns, only to be summoned from his team’s locker room celebration for an overtime period that eventually produced a 33-30 Cleveland victory.

This strange piece of payback occurred after Cleveland’s Phil Dawson played bumper pool with a 51-yard field-goal attempt at the end of regulation. Cleveland needed the field goal to forge a 30-30 tie, but Dawson appeared to have failed twice on the same kick.

First, the football struck the left upright and bounced up in the air.

No good! . . . No, wait.

Gravity grabbed the football and brought it down, where the ball struck the curved standard that supports the crossbar, inches beyond the crossbar. The football then bounced up again and back onto the field.

No good! . . . No, wait.

The Ravens were already in their locker room, laughing and slapping backs about squaring their record at 5-5. No. Wait.

After huddling for several minutes to discuss the very peculiar recent events, officials reversed their original call and ruled that Dawson’s kick had indeed broken the plane above the crossbar in between the goal posts.

Bring back the Ravens. Bring on overtime. Game still on.

Assigned to win the same game a second time, Baltimore’s players looked understandably confused. They began overtime by kicking off to Cleveland, then stood around for nine plays while the Browns drove into range for another field goal attempt. This kick by Dawson, a 33-yarder, was much more conventional, straight down the middle, through the uprights, a game-winner for the Browns.

Technically speaking, the officials got it right. According to the NFL rule book, “The actual [field] goal is the plane extending indefinitely above the crossbar and between the outer edges of the posts.’

Referee Pete Morelli told reporters that the initial no-good ruling was made “by one of the officials. The other official informed me that the ball hit the back of the extension of the goal post. . . . We determined that was what it struck. Therefore, we made the field goal good.�

Replays showed that Dawson’s kick, after hitting the left post, definitely broke the plane. The officials were denied access to those replays, as NFL rules prohibit on-field video reviews of field goal attempts. Morelli had to be reminded of that rule by an NFL spokesman when he initially went to the sideline intending to review the play.

Instead, Morelli and the officials had to make their decision the old-fashioned way. They got together and talked about it.

The Browns, riding a season-long reversal of fortune, improved to 6-4 with the U-turn triumph. That moved them to within one game of first place in the AFC North when the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3) lost the day’s other overtime game, 19-16, to the New York Jets on Mike Nugent’s 38-yard field goal.

The difference in the AFC North standings: Last week, Dawson’s last-second field-goal try from 52 yards fell short and the Browns lost at Pittsburgh, 31-28.

Remarkably, Indianapolis (8-2) also needed a very late field goal to defeat the 4-6 Kansas City Chiefs, who began the day by giving second-year quarterback Brodie Croyle his first NFL start. The Colts got that field goal, a 24-yarder by Adam Vinatieri with three seconds left, to finally secure a shaky 13-10 victory.

It was a struggle for the Colts because of an unusually shaky Vinatieri, who still appeared rattled from the game-deciding chip shot in Week 10 at San Diego. Vinatieri failed to convert his first two field-goal tries against Kansas City, extending his misfire streak to four, before connecting on a 27-yarder in the second quarter and his eventual fourth-quarter winner.

At the moment, the race for the NFC championship appears much more of a contest than the AFC chase.

New England routed Buffalo, 56-10, to remain undefeated at 10-0 -- two games ahead of the Colts and three games ahead of the Steelers and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

In the Patriots’ victory, Randy Moss caught four touchdown passes in the first half. It is interesting to note that hours earlier, Moss’ longtime rival Terrell Owens tied a Dallas Cowboys club record with four touchdown catches in a 28-23 triumph over Washington.

Amazing stuff, T.O.! You just equaled a mark set by “Bullet� Bob Hayes 41 years ago!

Moss yawned and racked up four scores of his own before halftime.

The Cowboys needed every Owens touchdown to remain tied with the Green Bay Packers at 9-1.

Green Bay rolled past Carolina, 31-17, as Brett Favre threw for three touchdowns -- enabling him to equal Dan Marino’s mark for most games with at least three touchdown passes, 62.

More impressively, the Packers are 9-1 for the first time since 1962. Just how long ago is 1962? Vinny Testaverde, the 44-year-old codger who started at quarterback for Carolina, was not born until November of 1963.

At the other end of the spectrum, Miami kept alive hopes of the NFL’s first 0-16 season by losing at Philadelphia, 17-7.

Dolphins at a glance: Miami fell to 0-10 after Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb injured an ankle and backup A.J. Feeley, a former Dolphin, came on to complete 13 of 19 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.

That earned Miami additional separation from the St. Louis Rams, who are 2-8 after a 13-9 victory over the 49ers, who are also 2-8 after giving Dilfer his fourth start of the season. Dilfer is 0-4 in those starts, with San Francisco scoring three, seven, 15 and nine points in those games.

Seven seasons ago, however, Dilfer won a Super Bowl with the Ravens. If Billick needs any help in coping with Sunday’s sting, he can always take another look at that championship ring.

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