Ad Blocker Detected
Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
PITTSBURGH — Najee Harris went back again to the bench immediately after Pat Freiermuth’s time beyond regulation fumble and collected himself for the Steelers’ subsequent offensive drive. Only difficulty: There would not be one more Pittsburgh possession.
The Detroit Lions (-8-1) tried using to pull off a series of laterals in a previous-ditch effort to crack the 16-16 tie in the remaining seconds Sunday, but D’Andre Swift was pushed out of bounds to close the game in the NFL’s first tie because Week 3 of the 2020 season.
Continue to, the rookie running back didn’t comprehend it was about right until a teammate told him.
“I failed to even know you could tie in the NFL,” Harris mentioned. “In my intellect, I was sitting down on the bench saying, ‘I’ve acquired yet another quarter to go.’ But somebody arrived to me and mentioned, ‘That’s it.’ I have in no way had a tie in my everyday living ahead of.”
Harris was not the only just one who was not expecting the abrupt, unsatisfying ending.
1 Similar
“It truly is nuts,” Lions second-yr operating again Godwin Igwebuike said. “I am again there like, ‘Yo, how lots of overtimes can we do?’ And they’re like, ‘Three’ … I hear, ‘Two, one,’ and we ended up like, ‘Yo, whatever’s going on, we are about to just put our all into it.'”
With the tie, the Lions prevented an -17 period, but they are even now on a 13-sport winless streak that dates back again to previous time.
“I am in this twilight zone,” Lions mentor Dan Campbell said. “I do not know what this is, really, and I’m guaranteed I have been in a tie prior to as a player, but for some motive I won’t be able to don’t forget that, if it was.”
“Ties suck,” Steelers defensive captain Cam Heyward added. “I know it’s a tie, but if it is really not a earn, I never feel you can actually hold your hat on that.”
The last 10-moment period was a comedy of errors for both of those groups.
The Lions won the coin toss and opted to receive, needing just a touchdown to earn it. Rather, the Steelers (5-3-1) received the ball back in 4 plays, sealed by a 9-garden Heyward sack. Then, on the ensuing possession, quarterback Mason Rudolph — starting up in put of Ben Roethlisberger — completed a 19-yard move to Diontae Johnson on the next enjoy, but Johnson fumbled it and the Lions recovered.
“I was just trying to make a engage in,” Johnson stated. “Like what everybody else would do in that problem: Get the ball like that, you try out to make a enjoy for the team, get them in fantastic field position. I failed to see the male coming powering me.”
It appeared Lions quarterback Jared Goff gave the ball suitable back again to the Steelers on the upcoming play with an interception by Minkah Fitzpatrick, but a defensive holding phone in opposition to Devin Bush negated it. Rather, the possession ended with a missed 48-property discipline target by Ryan Santoso, elevated a working day previously when kicker Austin Seibert landed on injured reserve.
A significant snap from centre Kendrick Green to Rudolph on the 2nd perform of the next collection doomed that push, but the Lions did nothing at all with their subsequent possession, possibly.
The Steelers acquired the ball again with 1 moment, 37 seconds remaining and managed to cross midfield. On very first down from Detroit’s 39, Rudolph hit Freiermuth for a 1-lawn acquire, but basic safety Will Harris pressured a fumble and linebacker Trey Bouquets corralled the unfastened ball.
With Freiermuth’s fumble, the Steelers grew to become the to start with staff to drop several fumbles in a single extra time interval considering that at minimum 2000, according to ESPN Stats & Info investigation. The Steelers are also the 16th crew to dedicate several turnovers in overtime since 1978.
The Lions could not do anything on the ultimate enjoy, sealing the tie.
“A tie in the NFL often feels like a reduction when you get to the locker place for the reason that you are not incorporating one to the earn column,” Steelers linebacker Joe Schobert said. “It can be a 50 percent-recreation. It may make a big difference in the stop. To allow it slip absent when you might be that close absolutely hurts.”
ESPN’s Eric Woodyard contributed to this report.
