Despite missing a number of players through injury, which saw keeper Brown in for Paul Robinson, Blackburn were starting to rattle their London guests with a number of crunching tackles.

BBC: El-Hadji Diouf celebrates his equaliser

There were more crunching tackles than chances in a scrappy first 30 minutes, most notably when Manuel Da Costa caught Dempsey with an elbow to the side of the head that went unpunished by referee Andre Marriner.

BBC: Dempsey

As thermometers drop across the Northeast and Midwest, bone-crunching blocks and tackles become the norm.

FORBES: The NFL's Coldest Games