Two points: Go back to the olden days, before spiking was allowed: All he had to do was throw at the feet of an eligible receiver (something QBs frequently do when a screen gets busted up--you don't want the guy to catch it and lose yardage).
Secondly: Okay, he spikes it. Illegal forward pass. 5 yards and loss of down. Because he does it so quickly, there's time left on the clock. They get another shot. That's preferable to what did happened.
Pet peeve: Coaches who let the clock tick down to 4 or so seconds for the game-winning or game-tying FG. If you leave 7 seconds on the clock then if something goes wrong and it's not 4th down, you can throw the ball away (or kneel and call TO if you have a time out left).
And if your offensive line doesn't have 7 men on the line and the flag drops, you get another play because there's two seconds left (if the clock runs out, you're SOL, game *can* end on an offensive penalty).
What the coaches are saying is that they're worried about 2 seconds being left on the clock and a Cal-Stanford type of KO return to end the game.
Okay, what's more likely? A Cal-Stanford (or Tennessee/Buffalo) type play, a once in a lifetime play that will be talked about for generations, or a team committing a penalty or botching a snap? I think the latter is a bit more probable. If a team has the chance, they should kick end-of-game FGs with 7-8 seconds left, then squib the kickoff rather than letting the clock run down to the last play.
One more point: It's inexcusable for a team *not* to have something ready for such a situation. WHY were ineligible receivers running downfield after a botched snap? There is absolutely no reason for them to do so, it's just inviting a penalty.
What amazes me is why they didn't simply try Collins-to-Toomer for a fourth time, since they shredded the 49ers deep all day long. Especially given the awful prior missed FG. They had time to try it twice.