They had a ref or nfl rules official on one of the shows on wgr that said even if he muffed the snap a bit, as long as he didn't drop the ball, the refs normally call it a clean snap and he could have spiked it.
That also would have been a judgement call on the ref though so allen knew that it could have been ruled against them and didn't risk it.
It was a good discussion. I'll see if I can find it.