Bryant boots Bucs to victory over Eagles with 62-yard field goal

ATLANTA, Kansas City and Tampa Bay all won their NFL games in dramatic fashion Sunday with late field goals, including Matt Bryant’s 62-yarder as time expired to lift the Bucs over Philadelphia.

After Michael Vick threw for a career-high four touchdown passes, including three to tight end Alge Crumpler, Morten Andersen kicked a 32-yard field goal with 8:04 left in overtime to power Atlanta past Pittsburgh 41-38.

The last time the teams played resulted in the last NFL game to finish in a tie — 34-34 on November 10, 2002.

Michael Koenen thought he had settled the game with 35 seconds left in regulation when he boomed a field goal from 56 yards to snap a 38-38 tie.

But Steelers coach Bill Cowher called a timeout to freeze Koenen just before the kick. The timeout negated the field goal, forcing Koenen to try again.

On his second attempt, Koenen was short and wide, but Troy Polamalu was penalised for running into the kicker.

That gave the Falcons (4-2) another chance, but coach Jim Mora switched from Koenen to Andersen, the NFL’s second all-time leading scorer.

But the attempt was too long for Andersen, who kicked it down the middle but was three yards shy of the crossbar.

The Steelers (2-4) took over at the 42 with 25 seconds left and Charlie Batch completed a 25-yard pass over the middle to Hines Ward to the Atlanta 33 with 17 seconds left.

But the Steelers would never get to attempt a field goal. As the team was lining up for a spike on the next play, wide receiver Nate Washington moved in the slot for a false start penalty.

Since the penalty came with under 10 seconds left, the Steelers were not allowed to run off another play. And so they went to overtime where Anderson decided it.

The game matched Vick against Ben Roethlisberger for the first time.

Roethlisberger completed 16-of-22 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns before a blow to the head in the third quarter forced him off.

In Tampa, Florida, Bryant gave the Buccaneers an improbable win, sending the Eagles to a loss with an amazing kick.

Bryant booted a 62-yard field goal — the second-longest kick in NFL history — as time expired to lift the Buccaneers to a thrilling 23-21 victory over the Eagles.

“As soon as I hit it I said, ‘Well, maybe,’ but I didn’t hit it as good as I thought I could have hit it,” Bryant said. “I lost sight of it and then somebody jumped on me and I heard a cannon go off and I said, ‘Well, I guess I made it.’”

Donovan McNabb, who had a pair of interceptions returned for touchdowns by cornerback Ronde Barber, threw for three touchdowns, the final one a 52-yard connection to speedy running back Brian Westbrook with 33 seconds left which gave the Eagles a 21-20 lead.

Lawrence Tynes kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal with six seconds remaining to propel Kansas City to a 30-27 win over San Diego.

The first meeting of the season between the AFC West rivals offered up plenty of excitement as the Chargers rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

In other Sunday games it was Cincinnati 17 Carolina 14; Houston 27 Jacksonville 7; Green Bay 34 Miami 24; NY Jets 31 Detroit 24; New England 28 Buffalo 6; Minnesota 31 Seattle 13; Denver 17 Cleveland 7; Indianapolis 36 Washington 22 and Oakland 22 Arizona 9.