Fourth Time's The Charm: Crosby Hits Winning Field Goal After Missing Three Straight

In a wild finish that will go down as one of the wackiest in recent NFL memory, Sunday's Packers-Bengals overtime thriller will be remembered more for the misses than for the game-ending make. 

Until his 49-yard field goal with 1:58 left in overtime to give Green Bay a 25-22 win, Packers kicker Mason Crosby had an afternoon to forget in Cincinnati, and it wasn't much better for Bengals kicker Evan McPherson. 

Crosby came into the game on a streak of 27 straight field goals made, having missed only two field goals in the last two seasons combined. Within four minutes at the end of the fourth quarter and beginning of overtime on Sunday, he had missed three.

Starting with 2:12 left in the game with the score tied at 22, Crosby hooked his 36-yard field goal wide left of the post to begin the shootout of misses. After a nine-play, 35-yard drive to just get the Bengals into field-goal range, McPherson could only laugh when his 57-yard effort hit the upright with 26 seconds left.

In typical Aaron Rodgers fashion, the reigning NFL MVP hit Davante Adams for 20 of his 206 receiving yards and spiked the ball at the Cincinnati 33-yard line with four seconds left to give the Packers another chance at a game-winner. But once again, Crosby stepped up and sent his field goal attempt wide left as time expired.

As if the Bengals were testing to see how far their luck could go, quarterback Joe Burrow threw an interception on the first play of overtime that set the Packers up at the Cincinnati 17. After waiting out the Bengals' attempt to freeze him, Crosby uncannily missed left once again—the fourth field goal miss in four minutes of crunch time. 

The miss gave the Bengals another chance to drive down the field to the Green Bay 32, setting up McPherson for his second shot at a game-winner. Naturally, in a game that was almost a caricature of itself, McPherson's attempt hit the flag at the top of the upright as it missed just left. 

With just over four minutes left in overtime, Rodgers drove the Packers from the Green Bay 39 to the Cincinnati 32, where Crosby stepped up and—at last—knocked down the winning kick from 49 yards to send the Packers sideline into a relieved frenzy.