By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
AP Sports Writer

Published: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Updated: Monday, October 19, 2009 10:39 AM CDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens said goodbye to Matt Stover in March after 19 years of steady excellence. Maybe they should have brought him back for season No. 20.

Stover’s replacement, Steve Hauschka, missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired, allowing Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings to escape with a 33-31 victory on Sunday and remain undefeated.

“He pulled it to the left,” coach John Harbaugh said. “What else are you going to say? He pulled it to the left.”

Favre was 21 for 29 for 278 yards and three touchdowns and Sidney Rice had six catches for a career-high 176 yards for the Vikings (6-0), but Joe Flacco and the Ravens had a chance to cap a remarkable comeback when their kicker lined up for the makeable field goal with 2 seconds to play.

For years, dating back to 1991 while the franchise was still in Cleveland, that meant Stover coming through to drill another one. He made 14 game-winning kicks in his career with the Browns and Ravens, including a 43-yarder to beat Tennessee in the AFC divisional playoff game last year.

But the Ravens told Stover in March that they were going in another direction. Hauschka, who was the kickoff specialist last season, got the job.

Stover made 24 straight kicks inside of 48 yards to finish last season, but Hauschka has already missed a 41-yarder and a 44-yarder this season. Vikings coach Brad Childress took a timeout just before the final play to try to freeze the youngster, who came to training camp with Minnesota before last season.

“It’s definitely one I want back,” Hauschka said. “I thought I put a decent swing on it and I looked up and there it was going left. Very humbling experience but I’m going to have to move on from it and make the next one.”

It was a disappointing end to a furious rally by the Ravens (3-3), who were down by 17 points with 10 minutes to play and 13 with 6 minutes to go.

Favre threw touchdowns on the first two possessions of the game to jump ahead 14-0, and Visanthe Shiancoe’s second TD catch of the game gave them a 27-10 lead with 10:08 to go.

But Flacco threw for 196 of his 385 yards in Baltimore’s 21-point fourth quarter to rally the Ravens. He threw a 32-yard TD to Mark Clayton and a 12-yarder to Derrick Mason before Ray Rice’s 33-yard scoring run gave Baltimore a 31-30 lead with 3:37 to play.

“That crowd over there had a heart of a champion to fight back and get it where they got it to,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said.

After signing Favre in mid-August after training camp broke, Minnesota has a comeback artist of its own.

Favre threw a 58-yard pass to Sidney Rice to setup Ryan Longwell’s 31-yard field goal to take back the lead with 1:56 to play.

“Well, you know, he’s been to a few of those rodeos before,” Childress said.

Including this year, when he drove the Vikings 80 yards in 1:39 with no timeouts to beat San Francisco three weeks ago.

Still, Childress decided to play it conservative by running three straight times after Rice’s big catch. Settling for the field goal gave Flacco one last chance to take the game.

“I felt like we needed to score a touchdown,” Favre said. “They were feeling it at that stage of the game. I think everyone in the building felt the same way.”

Flacco marched the Ravens right back down the field, picking apart a secondary that lost Pro Bowl cornerback Antoine Winfield to a foot injury in the second quarter.

But the Ravens couldn’t quite get close enough for Hauschka. Suddenly, the team has lost three in a row by a combined 11 points and its once-impenetrable defense is showing plenty of cracks.

Adrian Peterson rushed for 143 yards on 22 carries, the second time in a row Baltimore has allowed a 100-yard rusher after 39 straight games without one.