Wednesday, December 11, 2013

New Records!

In this dismal football season for the Minnesota Vikings there is some joy to learn that the team was part of new NFL records. New records that are mostly positive. The NFL record for least time to score five touchdowns in a game was five minutes, 40 seconds. Records are kept for pretty much everything on a football field. I was still a little surprised that someone bothered to keep track of the least time to score five touchdowns. The Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens shattered that record on Sunday. The two teams combined to score five touchdowns in two minutes, five seconds. The Ravens started those rapid fire touchdowns when Joe Flacco took the snap with 2:09 on the clock. He connected with tight end Dennis Pitta for a 1-yard touchdown pass. The Vikings got a 41-yard touchdown run from Toby Gerhart. The Ravens got a 77-yard kickoff return from Jacoby Jones. The Vikings answered with a 79-yard catch and run from Cordarrelle Patterson. Flacco found enough time to complete the scoring with the winning 9-yard touchdown pass to Marlon Brown. A play that ended with 4 seconds remaining on the clock. Two minutes and five seconds of furious football excitement. The negative for the Vikings in all of that scoring was that they had only two of the five touchdowns.

The quick touchdown record wasn't the only NFL record set by the Vikings and Ravens that day. They also broke the record for lead changes in the fourth quarter. They combined for six lead changes in the final quarter. All but one of those lead changes took place in the final two minutes, five seconds of the game. I believe that the game would have had a much better ending if there was one fewer lead change.

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