NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two players who could help decide the outcome of the Super Bowl hope to go unnoticed and want to stay off the field instead of doing their primary job.
Nobody wants to see the punters when the Eagles and Chiefs face off Sunday.
When Philadelphia’s Braden Mann and Kansas City’s Matt Araiza enter the game to punt, it means a drive didn’t go anywhere or stalled.
“Best-case scenario is I don’t play in the game except holding for Jake (Elliott),” Mann said.
If they enter to hold for field goals or extra points, they won’t be mentioned unless they mess up. Remember Tony Romo fumbling the snap on a 19-yard field goal that would’ve given Dallas a lead in the final two minutes of a 2006 wild-card game against Seattle?
The outcome of five Super Bowls has been determined by a field goal in the final 10 seconds, and last year’s game went to overtime after Harrison Butker made a 29-yarder with three seconds left. The Chiefs then beat the 49ers in OT on Patrick Mahomes’ 3-yard TD pass to Mecole Hardman.
In 2023, the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35 on Butker’s 40-yard field goal with eight seconds left.
In 2004, the Patriots beat the Panthers 32-29 on Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yarder with four seconds remaining. New England won its first Super Bowl two years earlier with Vinatieri nailing a 48-yarder to upset the Rams 20-17.
The Colts beat the Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl 5 in 1971 on a 32-yard field goal by Colts kicker Jim O’Brien with five seconds left in the game.
Perhaps the most famous miss in NFL history occurred in 1991 when Buffalo’s Scott Norwood missed a 47-year-old field goal wide right with four seconds to go, giving the Giants a 20-19 victory.
Those Super Bowls came down to the kicker but the process starts with the long snapper. Rick Lovato does that for Philadelphia and James Winchester handles it for Kansas City. The snap has to be right. The holder then has to catch the ball and place it perfectly. Lastly, it’s up to the kicker to knock it through the uprights.
“Holding is a lot more intricate and hopefully it looks easy,” Mann said. “I probably work on holding 40% of the time in the offseason because points are what matters most in games. Field position contributes to that but holding directly leads to points.”
Araiza was a holder for the first time this season because he also kicked in college. He quickly understood the importance of the role.
“You’re almost better off having a bad punting game than you are having a bad holding game because it’s points and kind of the expectation is to be perfect every time as a holder,” Araiza said. “It’s kinda like snapping. One bad snap and all of a sudden you have a bad game. It’s the same thing with holding. So, obviously, we’ve worked at it a ton, especially going back to OTA’s and figuring out exactly how Harrison wants it.”
Each kicker has a different preference on how they like the ball placed. There’s no margin for error, especially with rushers coming quickly to attempt to block a kick.
“Every kicker is a little bit different,” Butker said. “They might want the ball more straight down, more leaning forward, more leaning back and it also depends on wind conditions you have. Some kickers want to tilt the ball more in certain conditions. You have to make sure you communicate and tell your holder exactly what you want.”
The conditions for kicking should be perfect inside the Superdome so the snappers and holders have to execute their parts to give the kickers a chance.
Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts get most of the attention going into game. But it could come down to Winchester-Araiza-Butker or Lovato-Mann-Elliott executing a kick.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press
