How the Bengals Ended Up with Wrong Ball on the Field for Evan McPherson's Fourth Quarter FG Attempt

CINCINNATI – After Sunday’s 47-42 loss to the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals kicker said he thought he had struck the ball fairly well – “A 7 out of 10,” he said – on his missed field goal try in the fourth quarter.

But the 54-yard attempt, which is well inside of his range, fell short.

McPherson didn’t mention the real reason, likely because he didn’t want to sound as though he was making excuses.

But one day later, special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons provided clarity on how a kick from such a makeable distance fell short.

“The problem is we’re kicking a quarterback ball, we’re not kicking a “K” ball,” Simmons said.

There is no difference in the balls when they come out of the factory. But teams are allowed to condition them as they see fit, as long as they pass inespection a few hours before the game.

Quarterbacks like the ball harder, making it easier to throw. Kickers prefer to really work the leather and make the ball softer and easier to kick.

McPherson’s missed field goal was the culmination of a confusing sequence of events that led to the Bengals having the wrong ball on the field for his kick.

After the officials huddled and decided Joe Flacco’s third-down pass attempt was intentional grounding, resulting in a 10-yard penalty and loss of down, the Bengals were facing fourth and 13 at the Chicago 36.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor initially was inclined to go for it. The Bengals had just converted a third and 16 earlier in the drive.

But he changed his mind and had Simmons run the field goal unit onto the field.

The problem was that the 25-second play clock already had begun, and by rule, you can’t swap out a regular ball for a “K” ball once that happens.

“Is it something I agree with? It is not,” said Simmons, who often has a voice in league rules involving special teams as one of the league’s senior most coordinators.

“I think they have plenty of time to substitute those balls out,” Simmons added. “I’m sure in their minds, they’re deeming you’re making the decision later than what is the normal, and they don’t want to have an error by the throwing the ball away or the umpire (the official who spots the ball) dropping it and now you’re getting close to the end of the 25-second clock.”

There were 22 seconds left when Taylor made the decision to go for the field goal instead of the first down.

“We had plenty of time,” Simmons said

Taylor talked briefly about the sequence, which came with the Bengals trailing by seven with 6:02 remaining, after the game and said he needed to take more time to digest everything that happened in the moment.

He went more into it Monday.

“We're right there on the fringe of where we want to be for the field goal,” he said. “You're kind of making a decision at that point, are you comfortable going down four (points) and getting a stop and finding a way to go score. I thought in the split second that's where we could go.

“It ended up being a really tough decision – the fourth and long or the field goal. The percentages are probably very similar on how it's going to play out. Probably better off kicking the field goal than converting on the fourth and long,” he continued. “There's an imperfect answer there. Depending on the game, weather, all those things could maybe change it a little bit or make me make a different decision in a different game. There wasn't a great solution there on which way to go with that.”

“It’s a tough decision. It’s tough. Whether that was the right thing to do or not, I’ll have to reflect on that because now, in your head, you’re thinking fourth-and-three or less, potentially, so then you’ve got to shift very fast to the decision to kick the field goal, and now you’re down four and hope to get another possession and a stop to win the game. It’s tricky. Obviously, that was the decision we made, and it didn’t work out and I’ll have to digest if I made the right one there.”