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 With the win, Pittsburgh (7-8) maintained a shred of life in the
playoff race. To reach the postseason, the Steelers must earn a home
win next Sunday and have the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens and
San Diego Chargers all lose their regular-season finales.
The unlikely scenario still exists, thanks to the bizarre ending at Lambeau Field.
After safety Troy Polamalu's forced fumble helped the Steelers score
the go-ahead touchdown with 1:25 remaining, the Packers drove to
Pittsburgh's 1.
On second-and-goal, right tackle Don Barclay was flagged for a false
start with 20 seconds to play. After a 5-yard penalty and 10-second
runoff, the Packers had just one chance, and quarterback Matt Flynn
couldn't connect with receiver Jarrett Boykin as time expired.
The Packers were upset that they weren't allowed to immediately run
a play. Instead, they got the ball snapped with three seconds to go.
"Not when the umpire is standing there and the clock is running,"
Packers coach Mike McCarthy said about getting the ball snapped
sooner. "I don't know what you can ask Matt Flynn to do, or (center
Evan) Dietrich-Smith."
On a replay, the umpire backed off the ball before starting the
clock. The referee came toward the line of scrimmage with about 6
seconds left and yelled something, but it didn't appear to impact
what the Packers were doing at the line of scrimmage.
Despite the loss, Green Bay (7-7-1) still has a chance to win the
NFC North. The Chicago Bears (8-7) lost 54-11 to the Philadelphia
Eagles on Sunday, so the Packers would claim the division title if
they win at Chicago next Sunday.
With the game tied at 31 at the two-minute warning, Flynn scrambled
on third-and-8 but was stripped by Polamalu, with the Steelers
recovering at Green Bay's 17.
Shaun Suisham lined up for the go-ahead field goal with 1:35 to play
but Packers linebacker Nick Perry was flagged for offside, which
gave the Steelers a first down.
Running back Le'Veon Bell ran for 4 yards to the 1, forcing Green
Bay to use its final timeout, and he scored on the next play, making
it 38-31 with 1:25 to go.
The Packers let Bell score, but Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he
didn't contemplate taking a knee, running out the clock and
attempting a field goal.
"I'm not into that," Tomlin said. "We had an opportunity to put the
ball in the end zone. With weather conditions like that, anything
can happen. Given an opportunity to score, we are going to score. We
felt comfortable putting our defense on the field to win it."
That decision almost backfired when Micah Hyde returned the ensuing
kickoff 70 yards — the team's longest of the year entering the game
was just 31.
"It was huge," Flynn said. "We knew that getting it on the 20 we
were going to hard-pressed with no timeouts to get a touchdown. That
return did spark us and gave us energy. It wasn't like we were
lacking a spark or anything in that second half, but seeing a big
return like that definitely gave us ... we knew we had a better
probability of getting into the end zone."
Completions of eight yards to wide receiver Jordy Nelson and 18
yards to tight end Andrew Quarless made it first-and-goal at the 5.
Running back James Starks carried to the 1 on the next play.
The false start, however, wiped out any chance to earn their third
consecutive comeback victory.
After rallying from halftime deficits of 21-10 against Atlanta and
26-3 against Dallas, the Packers overcame a 10-point deficit to tie
the Steelers at 31 with 7:14 to play. A 31-yard completion to Nelson
and two powerful runs from Starks set up fullback John Kuhn's 1-yard
touchdown to tie the game.
The Steelers took a 31-21 at the end of a wild five-minute sequence
to end the third quarter.
[to top of second column] |
After Pittsburgh rallied to take a 24-21 lead, Flynn threw a
quick pass to Boykin. As he was about to throw, Quarless ran
into Flynn. Flynn's fluttering pass was picked off by cornerback
Cortez Allen, who raced 40 yards for a touchdown. The Packers'
ensuing possession went nowhere but, on the final play of the third
quarter, linebacker A.J. Hawk made a one-handed interception. Green
Bay took over at the 23 but had to settle for a 22-yard field goal
to pull within 31-24 with 12:04 remaining.
Green Bay took a 21-17 lead with 5:19 to go in the third quarter
after a bizarre sequence of plays. After the Packers downed a punt
at the 2, Bell was almost tackled in the end zone but powered out to
about the 4, where he was stripped by linebacker Jamari Lattimore.
Bell was ruled down but the Packers won the challenge, taking
possession at the 2 on cornerback Tramon Williams' recovery.
The Steelers, however, stopped the Packers cold. With Green Bay
using defensive linemen B.J. Raji and Mike Daniels as extra
blockers, running back Eddie Lacy was dropped for a loss of three
yards by rookie linebacker Vince Williams. After two incomplete
passes, Vince Williams blocked a chip-shot field-goal attempt by
Mason Crosby.
It appeared safety Ryan Clark picked up the loose ball and attempted
a lateral. The ball hit the ground, however, with defensive lineman
Ziggy Hood batting the ball out of bounds. Hood was flagged for
illegal batting, and Green Bay retained possession when the
officials ruled the Steelers never possessed the ball. Lacy scored
from the 2 on the next play to give Green Bay a 21-17 lead.
"They screwed it up, in my opinion," Tomlin said, "but I will wait
to hear judgment from those that evaluate performance. We got
penalized for batting but I thought we had possession of the ball
prior to batting. It would have been our possession."
The Steelers answered quickly. Bell made amends for his fumble with
a 25-yard run in which he hurdled safety Morgan Burnett.
Roethlisberger punctuated the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass
to tight end Matt Spaeth.
Moments later, Allen got his key pick-six.
The Steelers' special teams were a dominant force throughout and got
a huge play on the first possession of the third quarter. On
fourth-and-2 near midfield, Tomlin called for a fake punt.
Punter Mat McBriar rolled to his right and patiently waited for
someone to get open before lofting a pass deep to backup tight end
David Paulson for a gain of 30. A roughing-the-passer penalty on
Jake Stoneburner tacked on 15 more yards. On the next play,
Roethlisberger stepped up in the pocket and ran untouched for a
13-yard touchdown to give Pittsburgh its first lead, 17-14.
"That was a heck of a play," Roethlisberger said. "We have watched
him do that so many times in practice. He did a good job because his
first read was the guy in that flat that was covered."
NOTES: Green Bay LB Clay Matthews recorded his 50th career sack with
about five minutes left in the first half. Matthews injured his
thumb on the play and was lost for the rest of the game. Matthews
broke his thumb on a sack of Detroit's Matthew Stafford on Oct. 6
and missed four games. ... Fellow Packers LB Brad Jones was lost to
an ankle injury in the first half, as well. ... RB Le'Veon Bell
broke Pittsburgh's 23-game drought without a 100-yard rusher. He ran
for 124 yards on 26 carries. Pittsburgh's special teams delivered
two key return, a 41-yard punt return by Antonio Brown and a 46-yard
kickoff return by Emmanuel Sanders. Brown's return didn't result in
points but Sanders' runback allowed Pittsburgh to score a field goal
at the end of the first half. ... Brown had six catches to give him
101 for the season. ... Sanders and LB Terence Garvin were knocked
from the game with knee injuries. ... The Packers' 14-10 halftime
lead was its first since Oct. 27 at Minnesota. That was the game
before QB Aaron Rodgers sustained a broken collarbone.
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