Pro Bowl 2014 final score: Team Rice comes from behind, beats Team Sanders, 22-21

A 20-yard touchdown by DeMarco Murray and a two-point conversion from Mike Tolbert sealed a 22-21 victory for Team Rice in the 2014 Pro Bowl.

by James Brady

Jan 27, 2014, 3:50 AM UTC

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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2014 NFL Pro Bowl: Team Rice tops Team Sanders

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The 2014 NFL Pro Bowl has come to a close, with Team Rice coming from behind to secure a narrow 22-21 victory. Fullback Mike Tolbert scored on a two-point conversion to give Rice's squad the win.

Team Rice trailed Team Sanders by a touchdown in the final minutes of the game, but started to drive down the field. Quarterback Alex Smith found his receivers multiple times, making his way into the red zone with under a minute to go. Eventually, he found DeMarco Murray on a dump-off that went for a 20-yard touchdown.

From there, they elected to go for it and Tolbert was able to punch it in for the lead. Sanders’ team was unable to get things done with just over 40 seconds on the clock.

There were multiple changes to the format this year, which registered more on the “oh” scale as opposed to the “that’s awesome!” scale. Team Rice and Team Sanders, as referenced above, were led by Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders, who drafted their teams (over a two-day draft ... seriously). The only real thing this affected was that a few teammates tackled each other.

We speculate that it was physically impossible for Cris Collinsworth to go a full five minutes without mentioning this again and again.

Andrew Luck looked solid on the day, with five completions on seven attempts for 80 yards and a touchdown with an interception for Team Sanders. Cam Newton had 95 yards with an interception for Team Sanders as well. For Team Rice, Philip Rivers had a touchdown and two interceptions, while Drew Brees had a touchdown and an interception. Alex Smith had a touchdown and interception.

Neither team’s running backs played particularly well, as both defenses keyed in on stopping the run.

Unlike past Pro Bowls, this one actually featured strong defensive play moreso than two offenses walking up and down the field due to the rules. Team Sanders had a defensive line that featured all of J.J. Watt, Greg Hardy and Ndamukong Suh, so it’s easy to see why life was tough for Team Rice quarterbacks. Still, there were nine total sacks in the game.

It was the second Pro Bowl in the last 15 that ended up with fewer than 50 total points, as pointed out by ESPN.