The Steelers found themselves in a lopsided matchup for nearly 40 minutes against the Vikings on Thursday night after Minnesota took a 29–0 lead with 6:15 to play in the third quarter.
But after going scoreless the entire first half, Pittsburgh ripped off three-straight touchdowns to make things very interesting before the Vikings added their final touchdown of the game. Even with limited time after Minnesota's final score, Pittsburgh had a chance to win.
After Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw his third touchdown—a 15-yarder to tight end Pat Freiermuth—of the game, the Steelers converted a two-point conversion and came up with a defensive stand against the Vikings.
However, on the Steelers' final drive, Roethlisberger connected with Chase Claypool on a nine-yard pass with :42 seconds remaining in the game. With no timeouts, instead of hurrying to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball, Claypool chose to celebrate his catch by giving an extended signal of a first down. Claypool's antics forced an offensive lineman to attempt to get the ball from him, but it rolled away in the sequence, removing precious seconds off the clock.
While Roethlisberger completed two additional passes to Ray-Ray McCloud and Diontae Johnson on that drive, the Steelers came up short as Roethlisberger's final pass to Freiermuth fell incomplete.
In what's often a game of inches, just a few seconds can make the difference. Claypool said postgame that he's "got to be better."
"I got tackled near the hash," Claypool told reporters. " Did my little first down point. Went to hand the ball to the ref. He just got there. So, even I got right up and looked for him, he wasn't there.
"But I definitely do have to be better. I knew the situation, I know I'm near the has. I know the ball is placed on the hash. I've got to be better."
Instead, the Steelers (6-6-1) suffered their sixth loss of the season and fell to the 10th seed in the AFC playoff race.
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