Mike Celizic

This is why they play the games. This is why we watch them.

Never has there been a more insanely improbable set of finishes on one Sunday afternoon in the history of the National Football League. Never have so many games ended in such stunning fashion. Never have football fans had so many reasons to watch every game to the bitter end.

Only in sports can such things happen. Only in sports can we watch five different outfits win the lottery on the same afternoon. Only in sports can we go from agony to ecstasy and back in the course of a few minutes, and then, with the push of button on the remote control, repeat the process and then repeat it again — and again.

Real life is when the stock market teeters on the brink of collapse, the Fed and Congress ride to the rescue with huge bail-out and rescue packages, and then the stock market collapses anyway. Sports is when the rescue package works.

It happened four times in eight games that began at 1 p.m. ET. The Vikings beat the Lions with nine seconds left. The Texans beat the Dolphins with three seconds to go. The Rams beat the Redskins and the Falcons took out the Bears with no time left at all. The victories were the first of the year for the Rams and Texans.

And then, as if to say, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” the Cowboys and Cardinals put on the greatest show of all. Not content with a last-second victory, they ended regulation with a game-tying field goal and then settled it in overtime.

Four games decided with a total of 12 seconds on their collective clocks. A fifth decided in overtime — on a blocked punt, no less. And every one of the winning teams scored after giving up a lead with the fourth quarter winding down.

This is “on any given Sunday” taken to its theoretical limit.

Video   Too much ado about Dallas? Oct. 12: Tiki Barber and Jerome Bettis debate whether the Cowboys are overrated, based on Dallas' recent struggles. NBC Sports

I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow on the wins. You already know how it happened. You already know that all of it defied logic and everything you thought you know about the teams involved.

Probably no team was as defiant as Arizona in its win over the Cowboys. Let’s start with the obvious: The Cardinals don’t beat the Cowboys. That is a truth that we hold to be self-evident. Actually, the Cardinals don’t beat much of anyone. This is the team that gave up six touchdown passes to the New York Favres, a team that makes the playoffs once every 20 or 30 years, a team that is the NFL’s answer to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Yes, the Cards entered the game 3-2. But we knew that was an illusion. Why? Because anything the that makes the Cards look competent has always been an illusion. The Cowboys were picked to go to the Super Bowl. They’re one of the league's best teams. They win games like this. Always.

They especially win when they come back from 10 points down with two minutes to play. It was obvious what was going to happen when the Cardinals let Marion Barber run 70 yards for a touchdown, which cut their lead to three points with two minutes remaining. Dallas got it back with 50 seconds left and — thanks to an penalty committed by an injured Cardinals player who could not get off the field — kicked a 52-yard field goal to tie it.

That’s when the Cards always collapse. They lost the coin flip before the overtime period, and you knew that meant the Cowboys would drive down the field, kick their field goal, and go home in sole possession of second place in the NFC East.

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Maybe on a normal Sunday, you turn that one off right there. But after everything else that had already happened, you couldn’t leave this one. After everything that happened on Sunday of Week 6, you can’t ever leave a game again as long as there is even the slightest chance of a comeback.

You were rewarded for your loyalty to the game. The Cardinals flustered Tony Romo, then blocked the Dallas punt and took it into the end zone. All it needed was Al Michaels reprising his "do-you-believe-in-miracles?" call.

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