It was a wild game this afternoon in Pittsburgh, which was surprising after the first 45 minutes of play had produced such a dud, as both teams traded field goals and field position in a defensive battle. Apparently, they were just biding their time until the fourth quarter fireworks. Let’s review what happened (and what almost happened):
Frenetic Fourth Quarter in Pittsburgh
- ↵↵Sidney Rice made an unbelievable catch on the sidelines to give the Vikings, down 13-10, a first down on a 3rd-and-18.
- ↵Favre connected with Rice on an 8-yard touchdown that was called back because of a dubious tripping penalty.
- ↵On the next play, Favre was stripped from his blindside, and Lamar Woodley returned the fumble 77 yards for a Pittsburgh touchdown, to give the Steelers a 10-point lead.
- ↵Then, on the ensuing kickoff, Percy Harvin took it 88 yards for a touchdown. ↵Then Tony Siragusa said, “If you’re the Minnesota Vikings, you do NOT want to give up a touchdown on this runback for the Steelers.” So, uh, there you have it. The Vikings do NOT want to give up a kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, trailing by 3 points.
- ↵Ben Roethlisberger fumbled, but rather than take over deep Pittsburgh territory, two Vikings players bobbled the ball out of bounds.
- ↵Once Minnesota got the ball back, this play happened.
- ↵And then, just as it looked like the Vikings would tie, Chester Taylor bobbled a Favre pass right into the hands of Keyaron Fox, who ran it back 82 yards for a touchdown.
↵↵Whew.. With that, the game was finally over, and we could all take a breath, and consider the lesson for the day: despite its occasional lulls, football can get really awesome, really quickly.
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