Music: {allcanada} OFFICIATING CREW HAD TO KEEP TRACK OF WACKY FINAL PLAY

TORONTO -- Even by CFL standards it was a most bizarre ending.

Tom Higgins, the league's director of officiating, spent much of his weekend sifting through the zany details of the Montreal Alouettes' 37-30 win over the Argonauts in Toronto on Friday night.

A short-handed officiating crew had to keep track of a wacky final play that featured a missed field goal, two punts and an errant kick before Als fullback Dahrran Diedrick recovered a bouncing ball for the game-winning TD.

The seven-man unit was reduced to six when side judge Rob Skaggs of Edmonton left in the first half with a hamstring injury. Higgins says the officiating crew handled the last-minute mayhem flawlessly, despite being a man down.

"We were operating with six-man mechanics," Higgins said. "What happens on normal field goals is we have two officials under the goalposts and another on the end line so those are the three deep officials responsible for counting the defensive players.

"In this case, we had to have our guys swing back after the kick was missed because there's 20 yards of end zone (to cover)."

The fireworks began with nine seconds remaining and the game tied 30-30 as Montreal's Damon Duval lined up a seemingly routine 36-yard field goal.

He missed and Toronto's Mike Bradwell made a great play to keep the ball inbounds at the back of the end zone -- and thus prevent a game-winning single.

Bradwell booted the ball out of the end zone but it did not go out of bounds, which would have sent the game to overtime. Instead, he kicked the ball right to Duval and the Als punter-kicker booted it back in a second attempt for a single -- which would have happened if Duval's kick cleared the end zone.

But the ball remained in Toronto's end zone, where Grant Shaw of the Argos failed in kicking the bouncing ball out again.

That prompted a mad scramble. After the ball bounced off six different players, it was recovered by Diedrick for the winning TD.

Higgins, a former CFL head coach and personnel director, said while teams routinely practise such situations, he's still amazed this one went as long as it did.

"Usually, it never gets past the kick out of the field of play and there's usually always a no-yards penalty," said Higgins. "When Duval picked up the football, if we had a 15-yard or even a five-yard no-yards penalty, it's Montreal's ball there and he kicks a chip-shot field goal but my hat is off to both teams to be able to execute something like that.

"Coaches would do that in practice and no two are ever the same so to execute that flawlessly, wow, both coaches and both teams should be commended."

Predictably, the bizarre chain of events went to the replay booth for final examination and it was determined the play would indeed stand.

Higgins did say Bradwell was out of bounds on Duval's attempted field goal, then came back into the field of play to kick the ball out of the end zone. While Bradwell could have been flagged for illegal participation, it really was a moot point because Montreal would have simply declined it and taken Diedrick's TD.

"Only in Canada," Diedrick, a Toronto native, said with a chuckle of his late-game heroics. "Thirty years from now when I'm telling this story, it's not going to be the way it happened.

"It's going to be enhanced."

A look at the Als-Argos finale

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the play and the factors the on-field CFL officials had to consider in the heat of the battle on the final play of Montreal's 37-30 win over Toronto on Friday night:

1) Is Montreal kicker Damon Duval's field goal good? Usually this is easy to answer, but what adds to the difficulty is the height of the kick and its location. A kick that's short or goes through the uprights is easy to decide upon. It's much trickier to determine if a towering boot to the left or right is inside the uprights. But in this instance it was clear to the two officials under the goalposts Duval's attempt was wide.

2) Toronto's Mike Bradwell, punter Noel Prefontaine and backup kicker Shaw are all in the end zone awaiting Duval's kick. When it sails wide, Bradwell goes high at the back of the end zone to prevent the ball from sailing out of bounds for a single. If he had come down with it, officials would have to determine if Bradwell did so in bounds, because if he hadn't, Montreal would have been awarded the game-winning single. But because the officiating crew was short one, there wasn't anyone standing at the back of the end zone to see Bradwell was out of bounds on Duval's kick then came back into the field of play to punt the ball out. Bradwell could have been called for illegal participation but in the end it was moot because the right decision on the field had been made.

3) Upon Bradwell's kick, though, Toronto becomes the punting team and must give Montreal five yards to gain possession. Duval settles under it at the Argos' 22-yard line and game officials had to determine whether he's been given the necessary five yards. He had and punted the ball back into the home team's end zone.

4) If Duval's punt sails through the end zone, the Als would have been awarded the single for a 31-30 win. It didn't but the ball was still bouncing around, creating the possibility of it taking a weird hop and going out of bounds, which again would give Montreal a single.

5) The Argos become the receiving team, meaning Montreal must give five yards to let them take possession. If the Als are called for no yards, the ball comes out of the end zone and the game heads into overtime.

6) Argo Grant Shaw can't field the ball cleanly but, like a catcher blocking a wild pitch, does a nice job of sliding and letting it hit him and remain in play rather than potentially skipping out of bounds for the single. Shaw then tries to kick the bouncing ball out of the end zone and manages to contact it with his foot but couldn't get it out. As a result, though, it's now a free ball.

7) Toronto must not only recover the ball but get it out of the end zone to force overtime. Montreal has to not only prevent this, but also safeguard against the Argos possibly returning it the entire length of the field for the victory. After the ball bounces off various players, Dahrran Diedrick corrals it to secure the wild win for the Als*.