football: Late Field Goal Earns Steelers a "Thrilling" Victory

Oh. My. Goodness. Could that game have been any more painful to watch? The Pittsburgh Steelers avoided setting the record for the first NFL game to go into overtime scoreless by kicking a field goal with seconds left to beat the still winless Miami Dolphins 3-0. The score came on the first drive of the game to make it inside of the red zone (the Dolphins made it to the 20 yd line once, only to take a delay of game penalty on their field goal attempt).



Granted, you can't really blame the awfulness of this game on either team. The heavy rains and a layer of new sod (put in place after Friday's four WPIAL high school championship games and a Pitt football game on Saturday) coupled to create laughable field conditions. And Heinz Field isn't exactly known for its great field. Most of the paint came off with the tarp, so players probably just didn't know exactly where that red zone was anyway. Mud and divots covered the field, and the grounds crew apparently used what Joey Porter (back in Pittsburgh in a Dolphins uniform) described as "cat litter" to attempt to absorb some of the moisture.



I think my favorite part of the game was when a ball, punted by the Dolphins in the thrid quarter, plopped down into the mud and went no where. Kind of like the game.