National Football League top passer Matt Schaub threw for two touchdowns and run leader Chris Johnson scored the winning points on Sunday as the American Conference beat the National 41-34 in the Pro Bowl.
Houston’s Schaub, who threw for a league-best 4,770 yards this season, and Tennessee’s Johnson, who ran for an NFL-best 2,006 yards and had an NFL record 2,509 total yards from scrimmage this season, shined among the stars.
Schaub was named the Most Valuable Player after throwing a 33-yard touchdown pass to Texans teammate Andre Johnson, the NFL’s leading receiver, and a 23-yard touchdown to Brandon Marshall to give the Americans a 14-3 lead.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The American Conference leveled the all-time rivalry with the Nationals at 20 triumphs each.
After Johnson scored the final points on a two-yard run with 5:59 to play, the Nationals marched downfield, but James Harrison intercepted a Tony Romo pass to end their final drive and the Americans ran out the clock for the victory.
The NFL all-star showdown was played in Honolulu from 1980 through last year in the week after the Super Bowl, but organizers moved this year’s to a week before the Super Bowl and to Miami.
PHOTO: AFP
Despite pre-game rain and many absent stars, a sellout crowd of 70,697 turned out, meaning the game could stay a week before the Super Bowl when it returns to Hawaii next year.
“I think you should stop or end your season when you reach the pinnacle,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told the Miami Herald. “It’s anticlimactic when you come back with the Pro Bowl the week after the Super Bowl.”
Maurice Jones-Drew of Jacksonville scored on a four-yard touchdown run to give the Americans a 31-24 lead 3:39 into the third quarter and Miami’s Dan Carpenter added a 26-yard field goal 6:12 later to boost the lead.
The Nationals pulled within 34-31 on a seven-yard touchdown run by DeAngelo Williams with 82 seconds remaining in the third quarter and an interception by Asante Samuel set up a 40-yard field goal by David Akers that leveled the score at 34-34 with 11:43 to play.
Vincent Jackson of San Diego grabbed a pass from Jacksonville’s David Garrard and completed a 48-yard touchdown pass play with a dive across the goal line for the Americans to equalize at 24-24.
The play came just 51 seconds after Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson took a screen pass from teammate Donovan McNabb and rambled for a 58-yard touchdown for the Nationals in the opening seconds of the second half.
Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers connected with Steve Smith of the New York Giants on a 48-yard touchdown pass and flipped a seven-yard screen pass to Jackson, who raced into the end zone, as the team’s battled to a 17-17 deadlock at halftime.
■FINGER TROUBLE
REUTERS, MIAMI
New York Jets coach Rex Ryan apologized for making an obscene gesture toward a Miami Dolphins fan after a picture of the incident appeared on the Internet.
Ryan, in South Florida for Sunday’s Pro Bowl, attended a Mixed Martial Arts event the previous evening, where he was photographed making a one-fingered gesture.
“It was stupid and inappropriate,” Ryan said in a statement. “I wouldn’t accept that type of behavior from one of the coaches or players and it’s unacceptable from me. I apologize to the Jets organization, the National Football League and NFL fans everywhere.”
The Dolphins fan who took the picture, David Hildenbrand, told the Miami Herald Web site he had shouted, “Dolphins rule, Jets suck” at Ryan.
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