I didn't exactly see him "give himself up," in real time. It was pretty instantaneous; he caught the ball, rocked forward after the catch and tossed the ball in like his first stride.
The ref was standing right there and operating under what I consider pretty normal rules. I know my recollection of kickoffs is a little more old school than the game these days lol... it looked like he forgot to kneel. Old school common sense to me - I figured all these kickoffs out the back of the endzone had created us an instant classic all-time bonehead play.
In real time, I wish it would have been a touchdown but felt so bad for Houston having that go down then and there that I was ok with them getting the ball back for some reason. The more I think about it, there is a reason why kneeling for a touchback is a rule, right? I get players "giving themself up," rarely is it just standing there after possessing a kick. On a squib they have to kneel it. They don't get to just catch it and stand there, leaving the refs and game clock operators to figure it out. I think someone could really insist that because he didn't kneel it, he "made a football move." You can't "make a football move" and "give yourself up" at the same time. You can't just give him credit for the kneel because he did something dumb immediately after catching the ball in the end zone. aaand, he could have let it bounce. I've seen more kickoffs bounce through the endzone this year than I can handle... it was a dumb play.
I suppose it would have been cool to see Buffalo get the win. It really would have been cooler to have a play like this go down in infamy - you never would have forgotten it. Steve Sabol would have been up in heaven busting out old Blooper reels just to add this one to it.