Two players who could play a big role in the Super Bowl might go unnoticed and hope to stay off the field while doing their main job.
Nobody wants to see the punters when the Eagles and Chiefs meet on Sunday.
When Braden Mann of Philadelphia and Matt Araiza of Kansas City go in to punt, it means the team’s drive didn’t go well or stopped.
“The best-case scenario is I don’t play in the game except holding for Jake (Elliott),” Mann said.
If they are called to hold for field goals or extra points, they won’t be mentioned unless they make a mistake. Remember when Tony Romo fumbled the snap on a 19-yard field goal that would have given Dallas a lead in the final two minutes of a 2006 wild-card game against Seattle?
Five Super Bowl outcomes have been decided by a field goal in the final 10 seconds, and last year’s game went into overtime after Harrison Butker made a 29-yard field goal with three seconds left. The Chiefs then won against the 49ers in overtime with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.
In 2023, the Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 with Butker’s 40-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining.In 2004, the Patriots beat the Panthers 32-29 with Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal with four seconds remaining. New England had won its first Super Bowl two years earlier with Vinatieri’s 48-yard kick to upset the Rams 20-17.
The Colts beat the Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl 5 in 1971 with a 32-yard field goal by Colts kicker Jim O’Brien with five seconds left in the game.
One of the most famous misses in NFL history happened in 1991 when Buffalo’s Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal wide right with four seconds remaining, giving the Giants a 20-19 win.
These Super Bowls came down to the kicker, but it all starts with the long snapper. Rick Lovato does that for Philadelphia, and James Winchester does it for Kansas City. The snap has to be perfect. The holder then catches the ball and places it correctly. Finally, the kicker has to make the field goal.
Matthew Wright kicks a field goal in the 2nd half“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 matter most in games. Field position contributes to that, but holding directly leads to points.”
Araiza became a holder for the first time this season since he also kicked in college. He quickly realized how important the role is.
“You’re almost better off having a bad punting game than a bad holding game because it’s about points, and the expectation is to be perfect every time as a holder,” Araiza said. “It’s like snapping. One bad snap, and all of a sudden, you have a bad game. It’s the same with holding. We’ve worked on it a lot, especially going back to OTAs, and figuring out exactly how Harrison wants it.”
Every kicker has a different preference for how the ball should be placed. There’s no room for mistakes, especially with rushers trying to block the kick.
“Every kicker is a little different,” Butker said. “They might want the ball more straight down, more leaning forward, or more leaning back, and it depends on the wind. 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 need to execute their roles to give the kickers a chance.
Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Saquon Barkley, and Jalen Hurts are the big names leading up to the game. But it could come down to Winchester-Araiza-Butker or Lovato-Mann-Elliott making the successful kick.
