Camera on Mason Crosby after he pulls a 36-yard field goal wide left, 2:12 left in the fourth quarter. No emotion from Crosby.
Camera on Mason Crosby after he pulls a 51-yard game-winner left on the last play of the fourth quarter. No emotion.
Camera on Mason Crosby, two minutes into overtime, after he yanks a 40-yarder two feet left. He looks chagrined, but no real emotion.
Camera not on Mason Crosby, fourth-and-inches for Green Bay in field-goal range, late in overtime in a 22-22 game. Coach Matt LaFleur approaches him on the sidelines, and you know what LaFleur is thinking. If he sees uncertainty in Crosby, if he sees the averted eyes, he’s not going for the field goal again. He’ll put it in the hands of one of the great quarterbacks of all time, Aaron Rodgers, and take his chances.
“What do you think?” LaFleur said.
“I got this,” Crosby said.
Straight down the middle from 49 yards away. Green Bay 25, Cincinnati 22.
It’s been a weird year for kickers. They missed 12 PATs Sunday, one by Crosby. So Crosby missed four kicks in Cincinnati, and still got a chance to kick the winner again.
It always interests me, the mindset and approach of field-goal kickers. There was a gusting wind on a warm afternoon in Cincinnati, the wind blowing in different directions up to 20 mph. The 51-yard miss got caught in a hard right to left wind, he thought. Crosby’s not sure, but he thinks one or more of the kicks may not have had the laces facing straight ahead; when they’re to either side, the ball can be a knuckleball. He’ll see the tape today and figure if the snap-hold part of the equation needs adjusting. But the approach . . .
“Sounds boring,” he said from Cincinnati post-game, “but I’ve been in it for a long time, and make or miss, you move to the next one. You kinda go through the process for a play or two and then you have to reload. When Matt came right down to me he just said, What are you thinking? And of course I wanted to kick it.
“It’s my job. I just keep resetting. I haven’t missed many kicks the last few years. Unfortunately it came in a little bit of a cluster here but I know my ability and when everything is smooth and good, we go out there and execute. It was another opportunity. Just couldn’t believe with how crazy this game was that we had another chance. But when there’s chaos, when the challenge gets even higher and the pressure gets greater, you have to find that calm. I’m able to do that. I want to be out there. If you get too high, you won’t find that calm.”
I talked to Crosby for 13 minutes. When I hung up, I thought: If we’d had a 65-yarder to try after he’d missed three, I’d have sent him out there too. I certainly know why LaFleur did.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/10/11/bills-chiefs-afc-nfl-week-5-fmia-peter-king/