The New England Patriots have won three Super Bowls during their dynastic run with Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. So as the Patriots wind down their preparations to face the New York Giants here in another Super Bowl, it is only natural to wonder if their current place kicker, Stephen Gostkowski, will be up to the task if called upon Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
I’m worried about my first kick right now and worrying about having a good game. The Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl 10 years ago, 20-17, on Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal as time expired. Vinatieri’s 41-yarder with four seconds left gave the Patriots a 32-29 Super Bowl triumph over the Carolina Panthers eight years ago.
Asked this week about Vinatieri’s Super Bowl-winning kicks, Gostkowski said: “Before I got in the NFL, I was a fan like anybody else. Gostkowski is a good all-around athlete who was all-state in baseball and soccer as well as in football in high school in Mississippi. He went to college at Memphis on a partial baseball scholarship before walking on to the football team as a place kicker and earning a football scholarship. The teams’ current place kickers, Gostkowski and the Giants’ Lawrence Tynes, participated in that game, and Tynes had a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter. The Giants also beat the Patriots narrowly, 24-20, in a regular season game this season on a touchdown pass by Manning with 15 seconds to play. So another down-to-the-wire game Sunday certainly seems possible, if not likely, and the place kickers could have significant roles to play.
“Even playing in preseason games are nerve-racking. Of the two place kickers in this game, Tynes enters with a more significant résuméof big postseason kicks. He kicked the Giants into this Super Bowl with an overtime field goal in San Francisco in the NFC title game, just as he kicked them into the Super Bowl four years ago with an overtime field goal in Green Bay in the NFC championship game.
After kicking in college at Troy University, he had stints in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League before spending three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and now five seasons with the Giants. He is a career 80.9 percent field goal kicker in the NFL, and was at 79.2 percent during the regular season this season.
In a game with spots in NFL history at stake, the ultimate difference-maker could be Gostkowski or Tynes.
“We’re at this game.
