Once Mike Nugent sealed his 48-yard field goal to give the Bengals an eight-point lead, the Seattle Seahawks offensive momentum stalled big time. A poor Tarvaris pass to Doug Baldwin just beyond his reach, followed with a limited one-yard gain, setup a third-and-nine from the Seahawks own 16-yard line with 4:03 remaining in the game. And after owning his blocker, Carlos Dunlap dropped Jackson with a nine-yard loss, recording his first quarterback sack of the season.
And then things went awesome.
Jon Ryan punted the football 49 yards to the Bengals 44-yard line where Brandon Tate hauled in the punt. Avoiding hitters, tacklers and bad guys with villainous grins, Tate returns the football 56 yards into the end zone for a touchdown, giving the Bengals a 27-12 lead. It's the first punt return for a touchdown since Peter Warrick's return against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2003. We're not exactly sure, but this has to be the first game in which two punt returners posted 50-plus yard returns in the same game by the same team. We're sure we'll hear about it soon enough.