Cris Collinsworth could not contain his excitement over the idea of a tie between the Chargers and Raiders on Sunday night.

A quirky playoff scenario existed in the matchup, where the winning team would make it into the postseason and the loser would be out — but if the teams tied, they’d both have made it in and knocked out the Steelers.

With about five minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Raiders holding a 15-point lead, this scenario seemed pretty remote, but Justin Herbert led a touchdown drive and the Chargers converted a two-point conversion to make it a one-score game. After Los Angeles got the ball back, Collinsworth laid out the scenario for NBC viewers.

“We haven’t really touched on this yet, but if this thing were to go into overtime, right? You get down to the last two minutes of the game … and now, decisions, right?” Collinsworth asked.

“I mean, are you gonna be willing to sort of sit there and play for a tie? I think that it’s within your means to do so.”

“You’re a conspiracy theorist,” Al Michaels responded.

“I’m just saying, there’s some complexity to this thing,” Collinsworth countered.

“There certainly is,” Michaels agreed.

In a funny twist, Barstool Sports impressionist Joey Mulinaro correctly predicted that Collinsworth would go gaga over the tie scenario — before the Sunday Night Football game ever kicked off.

Collinsworth’s excitement for the possibility of a tie only grew as the teams traded field goals in overtime, his earlier remarks about what could happen in the final two minutes was starting to come true.

Coming out of the two minute warning, the Raiders had first and 10 at the Chargers’ 45-yard line, approaching field goal range. Collinsworth said, “A tie’s okay, so you don’t want to go too crazy here.”

Raiders running back Josh Jacobs got stuffed on first down as the clock was dribbling down.

“We’re going tick, tick, tick,” Collinsworth said. “I’m just telling you … at some point, because you know the Chargers wouldn’t call a timeout” — more on this shortly — “So you run it three times, this game is over, and the only people in pain are in Pittsburgh. These two teams go off to the playoffs.”

Jacobs ran for seven yards on 2nd and 11, inside the Chargers’ 40. As the clock continued to trickle down, Michaels was unsure whether the Raiders would play for the tie or attempt a field goal as time expired, whereas Collinsworth seemed to heavily favor playing for the tie, so nothing could go awry on the field goal attempt (if the Chargers blocked it and ran it back, it would be devastating for the Raiders).

With 38 seconds remaining and the Raiders facing 3rd and 4, Chargers coach Brandon Staley called a timeout, and Collinsworth (who had previously said the Chargers would not call timeout) was perplexed.

“What?” Collinsworth asked. “You’d think the Raiders were playing it down to either take a field goal or let the clock run out and the Chargers called timeout.”

“I’m trying to process this myself,” said Michaels.

“I … I … Wow,” said Collinsworth, who thought the Chargers were trying to play to get the ball back.

Josh Jacobs ran for about 10 yards, to the Chargers’ 29, setting up a 47-yard field goal attempt for their kicker Daniel Carlson. Collinsworth was still kind of thinking about the tie as the Raiders called timeout.

“They could have [let the clock run out],” Collinsworth said. “And that would have been the way they could have guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs, and yet they still want to win the game. They still want to kick this field goal.”

There are a number of reasons it did make sense for the Raiders to play for the win. They knocked their division rival out of the playoffs. Further, in beating the Chargers as opposed to tying them, the Raiders avoided the Chiefs, who defeated Las Vegas 41-14 and 48-9 in their two meetings this season.

As for Staley’s timeout, there’s a legitimate case he was trying to get a breather for his gassed defense. He called the timeout with just four seconds remaining on the play clock. If he had been trying to get the ball back, he would have called the timeout sooner.

Nonetheless, we’ll never know what would have happened had Staley not called that timeout. Maybe the Chargers would have stuffed a Josh Jacobs run and the Raiders would have been looking at a field goal that was perhaps 57 yards instead of 47. Would they still have kicked? It will be an enduring mystery.