There is only one thing worse in sports than losing — tying.
Why in the world you’re allowed to end a game without a winner in the NFL is completely beyond me, but on Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Steelers and the Detroit Lions both went home unsatisfied.
The Lions avoided the first ever 0-17 season and the Steelers proved they’re unprepared for life after Ben Roethlisberger in a 16-16 tie at Heinz Field.
Detroit had an opportunity to get their first win under first-year head coach Dan Campbell when Ryan Santoso stepped up for a 48-yard field goal in overtime, but his kick was a duck from the second the ball left his foot, and Pittsburgh tight end Pat Freiermuth fumbled at the Lions 39-yard line with eight seconds left in OT, leaving players flummoxed by the result.
“I didn’t even know you could tie in the NFL,” Steelers running back Najee Harris said after the game. “In my mind, I was sitting on the bench saying, ‘I’ve got another quarter to go.’ But someone came to me and said, ‘That’s it.’ I’ve never had a tie in my life before.”
“It’s nuts,” Lions second-year running back Godwin Igwebuike said. “I’m back there like, ‘Yo, how many overtimes can we do?’ And they’re like, ‘Three’ … I hear, ‘Two, one,’ and we were like, ‘Yo, whatever’s going on, we’re about to just put our all into it.'”
It’s the fourth straight season in which there has been a tie in the NFL. The league shortened the overtime period from 15 to 10 minutes starting in 2017.
Without Roethlisberger — missing the game after testing positive for COVID-19 — the Steelers turned to backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, who went 30-50 for 242 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.
“He did what we expected him to do,” Tomlin said, via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He gave us a chance to win, but that’s not the first opportunity for him. This guy has been at it for a while, so we expected him to play well, and we thought he gave us a chance to win.”
On the other side of the field, it’s hard to say that Lions quarterback Jared Goff gave his team a chance to win. The sixth-year quarterback threw for just 114 yards, 60 of which came in overtime. Detroit came into the game wanting to establish the running game, which they did, getting 130 yards from D’Andre Swift and 242 on the day.
“That was part of the plan anyways,” Goff said. “With the weather and the way they play football and the way that we wanted to play today, (our plan) was to run the ball efficiently. And we did that. Keep the ball on the ground, even in situations we typically wouldn’t.
“Of course, as a quarterback I want to throw the ball, but that was our game plan this weekend.”
But in the NFL, inevitably your quarterback has to make the necessary plays to win and Goff was incapable on Sunday, as he has been for most of the 2021 season. Goff reportedly suffered an oblique injury in the first quarter, which hampered him for the rest of the game.
“The consensus was (to) leave him in there,” Campbell said. “He was good to go, felt good enough to do what he needed to do, so that’s what we did: We stuck with it.”
It was a bittersweet moment for Campbell, who while experiencing his first Sunday without a loss, still is yet to taste an NFL victory as a head coach.
“Twilight zone,” Campbell said of his feelings after it ended. “I don’t know what this is, really. … I don’t know. I’m just proud of the way they played. They snapped back. They were better than they were two weeks ago.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.