SAN FRANCISCO — Not only does defense win championships, it also wins Pro Bowls.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. jumped a route to intercept Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow with four minutes to go Tuesday night to seal the NFC’s 66-52 comeback win against the AFC in the league’s third Pro Bowl flag football game.
At the time of Winfield’s pick, the AFC was down by eight points and driving to tie the game. Instead, Winfield gave the momentum back to the NFC, which put an exclamation point on the game with a final score from Jalen Hurts to CeeDee Lamb with 24 seconds left.
“My team just didn’t give up, they kept fighting and we knew that we wanted to somehow get it close, and once we did that, we were able to win the game,” NFC head coach and San Francisco 49ers legend Jerry Rice told ESPN’s Laura Rutledge during the trophy presentation.
Winfield earned defensive MVP honors for his timely interception, while Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens nabbed offensive MVP after recording three catches for 39 yards and a touchdown.
“I had a great time,” Winfield told Rutledge. “We all just fought hard, played with each other and we just did our thing and won. Shoutout to the NFC.”
Pickens caught the go-ahead touchdown pass from fellow Cowboy Dak Prescott with 6:21 to go in the fourth quarter, completing the NFC’s comeback from a 16-point second-half deficit.
“It was super fun with all the guys,” Pickens said. “Kind of like Antoine says, shoutout to the NFC, man.”
Green Bay Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons, using a motorized scooter as he recovers from ACL surgery, wheeled out on the field to celebrate with his NFC and former Cowboys teammate after the score.
He tried to get even more involved a few minutes later, when he attempted to check in for the conversion with flags on his scooter at the end of the game. But he wasn’t allowed to stay in and motored off as the DJ played Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty.”
“We was going to use Micah for the tush push,” Pickens said. “We saw him and he was in the scooter. It would have been a tush roll. [The refs] was not playing around. That would have been a nice play though.”
Although the NFC jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, the AFC went on a 32-0 run — including two safeties — to take a 32-14 lead midway through the second quarter. The two conferences traded a flurry of scores in the final five minutes before halftime to keep it close at the break.
The game featured a number of first-timers making big plays, including a big man touchdown by Denver Broncos offensive lineman Garett Bolles, playing in the first Pro Bowl of his nine-year career, on a pass from Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
First-timer Joe Flacco also had a pair of touchdown passes to Bengals teammates Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
