Nate Burleson was the hero.

But not before he was...well, let's not say he was going to be labeled a goat.

However, after dropping two possible touchdown passes earlier in the game, he was starting to grow a shaggy little beard, some pointy ears, and I did spot him gnawing on some Field Turf at halftime.

Of course, I jest. Nate Burleson is one of the finest people I've ever met in nearly two decades of covering sports.

I could tell you more, but Times' columnist Steve Kelley writes about Burleson in today's game coverage.

I do know this -- Burleson is as fine an athlete as he is a person. However, he's been the victim of some tough luck (injuries) and spotty play (dropped passes).

During Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Burleson found himself open behind the defense a number of times. And the first three times, he didn't catch the ball.

The first happened late in the second quarter when Burleson split Cincinnati's safeties but Matt Hasselbeck's pass was ever-so-slightly overthrown:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 400, 1/1000 sec., f2.8)

In the third quarter, Burleson got behind Cincinnati's Johnathan Joseph on a deep post route but couldn't hang onto the ball, despite an open path to the end zone in front of him:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 250, 1/1600 sec., f4.0)

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Burleson made a tremendous effort on a "jump ball" along the sidelines, battling with Bengals' defender Johnathan Joseph. Both players appeared to come down with the possession, but the ball popped out when they fell to the turf, and the resulting loose ball was intercepted by Cincinnati:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 400, 1/1000 sec., f2.8)

Things only got worse with six minutes left in the game. Seattle faced third-and-four at the Cincinnati five yard line, and Burleson found himself open in the back of the end zone. A touchdown would have given the Seahawks a 21-15 lead, but Burleson couldn't hang on, and it would have been hard for him to make the catch inbounds:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 70-200mm/f2.8 lens @ 200mm, ISO 500, 1/1000 sec., f2.8)

After all of this, I'm really feeling bad for the guy. I've got four nice photos of him dropping passes. But on Seattle's final drive, Burleson made two great catches to spark the Seahawks' final scoring drive.

In a no-huddle offense, Burleson ran an out-route and kept his feet inbounds while falling out-of-bounds for a 15-yard reception and a first down. Not only did this catch move Seattle into Cincinnati territory, it also stopped the clock. No problems concentrating on the ball here:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 400, 1/1000 sec., f2.8)

Then, with only 1:06 left in the game, Burleson caught a crossing route and raced for the corner of the end zone to give the Seahawks a 24-21 lead:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 70-200mm/f2.8 lens @ 200mm, ISO 640, 1/640 sec., f4.0)

The lighting is tough to shoot in because the field is in shadow and the stands behind them are in extreme highlight, so the photo looks funky. I was able to switch from my 400mm lens to a camera with a zoom lens, because if he scored, I wanted to be able to see the end zone. It all happened so fast that I wasn't able to get wide enough.

But I did manage to get a frame of the winning touchdown, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Still, the photo is underexposed, has some movement (1/640th of a second isn't quite fast enough to freeze motion when someone is running right at you -- 1/1000 would have been better). The other challenging part of this situation is that the players got very close to us and photographers and sideline officials were all scrambling to get out of the way.

Here's what the page looked like: