Green Bay Packers: Divisional Round special teams recap
By Kenn Korb
Mason Crosby
Kickoffs:
- Touchback
- Touchback
- Touchback
- Touchback
- Touchback
- Touchback
Scoring:
- Extra points: 4/4
- Field goals: 2/2 (Made: 56, 51)
This was the best game Crosby ever played.
Let’s get the most obvious aspects out of the way first. His two field goals at the end of the game were not only long, but remarkable milestones in his career and were historic in multiple ways.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Crosby is the first player to make two 50+ yard field goals in the final two minutes of a playoff game. That’s even more unlikely than it may sound too. Before this, Crosby had never made multiple 50+ yard attempts in a game period regardless of the situation; in fact, these were the first two 50+ yarders he had made throughout his postseason career (prior to now, he had missed his only two 50+ yard attempts in postseason play). His career rate on 50+ yarders coming in (including playoffs) was 28-56 — brought down big time by a 2-9 showing during his dreadful 2012 campaign.
The 56 yarder he made to give Green Bay a 31-28 lead with under two minutes in the game was tied for the third longest field goal of his career, and sits as the third longest ever converted in postseason history. His 51 yarder may not have been as long, but it secured the win for his team — and he had to actually kick it through twice (due to being iced by the Cowboys).
The two kicks brought his postseason kicking record to 26-28 overall, and furthered his current consecutive makes streak to an NFL-record 23 — four better than the next-closest competitor (19 – David Akers).
This spectacular effort did not stop at his field goals, either.
He made all four of his extra point attempts, directly accounting for 10 of Green Bay’s 34 points by himself. Beyond that, he may have had his best-ever day kicking the ball off as well.
All six of his kickoffs were touchbacks, completely preventing any opportunity for Dallas to pick up an advantage through their kick return unit. Only three other times in Crosby’s career has he managed to only record touchbacks on his kickoffs; this was the most total touchbacks he’s ever picked up in those instances (6), only the second time he’s picked up at least 5 in this particular situation (5 in 2012 vs Indianapolis), and the first time he’s managed to only have touchbacks since a 2015 contest versus Denver.
Each singular outcome would be praise-worthy in a game by themselves; put altogether, it becomes one of the best kicking performances we may ever witness.