PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers, stretched thin by injuries and their own mistakes, repeatedly kept the New York Giants out of their end zone. A game the Steelers were controlling turned dramatically when they couldn’t stay out of that end zone themselves.
Eli Manning threw a 2-yard scoring pass to Kevin Boss with 3:11 remaining for the Giants’ only touchdown after they tied the game several minutes earlier on a bizarre safety.
Emergency snapper James Harrison snapped the ball out of the end zone to give New York the pivotal two points, and the Giants rallied to beat Pittsburgh for a 21-14 victory Sunday in a matchup of division leaders.
The resilient Steelers (5-2), playing with backups all over the field, tried to make up for Ben Roethlisberger’s four interceptions and five sacks by turning two big-play scores into a 14-12 lead they preserved with a goal-line stand midway through the fourth quarter.
The Super Bowl champion Giants (6-1) tied it with 6:48 remaining when Pro Bowl linebacker Harrison, playing center due to long snapper Greg Warren’s torn anterior cruciate ligament, centered the ball over punter Mitch Berger’s head.
“Nobody has two long snappers on their team; what you have are emergency snappers,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin knew Pittsburgh was without a snapper, saying, “That’s why we brought the pressure. I don’t know if it disturbed them, but the snap was high.”
John Carney kicked four field goals for New York, hitting from 26, 35, 25 and 24 yards — an indication of how many times the Giants threatened but couldn’t get into the end zone against the NFL’s top-ranked defense until Boss’ TD.
Manning, held in check most of the game while going 19-of-32 for 199 yards, finally took advantage of the tiring and depleted Steelers defense by finding Steve Smith for 25 yards to the 25 on the decisive drive.
