There’s No Freezing Red-Hot Crosby on Winning Kick
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Mason Crosby is money.
Crosby’s 22nd consecutive field goal, a 51-yarder as time expired, sent the Green Bay Packers home with a 30-28 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in a Sunday night thriller.
“As soon as I hit it, I was kind of leaning and then, as I was trying to get a visual on it to make sure it had the distance, nothing crazy happened and then I just kind of went blank,” Crosby said. “Took off running. Everybody else was watching. I was already going.”
From a standpoint of drama and difficulty, the kick was reminiscent of Crosby’s memorable go-ahead and game-winning kicks at Dallas in 2017.
Crosby hasn’t always been so clutch. In 2010, he missed a 53-yarder at Washington that would have won the game. In 2015, he missed a 52-yarder that would have prevented an embarrassing loss to Detroit. Early in 2018, he missed a 52-yarder that would have beaten Minnesota. Late in 2018, he missed a 49-yarder that would have forced overtime against Arizona.
But the 37-year-old kicker is in one heck of a groove. It’s little wonder why, after Aaron Rodgers completed a 17-yard pass to Davante Adams to the 33-yard line, that the MVP quarterback pumped his fists so enthusiastically after stopping the clock with 3 seconds to go.
“We still had a 51-yard field goal, but my old partner Mase, I felt good about him nailing that. He’s made some big kicks over the years,” Rodgers said.
The 49ers called the obligatory timeout to ice Crosby but there’s no amount of ice that’s going to freeze the veteran kicker.
“Obviously, just knowing what those moments feel like, what kind of the end result and the celebration, you just kind of have that experience from past moments, so that was a big one,” he said. “It was a 51-yarder, so you’ve got to hit it true and hit it solid. Celebrating with the guys in the end zone, seeing that energy and feeling that juice is what it's all about. And then carrying on into the locker room and guys pouring water all over my head and on everybody, that's what this game is all about. It was really special.”
Crosby’s 22-kick streak is the second-longest in franchise history behind his 23 consecutive makes from a decade ago.
With a 54-yarder in the first quarter, a 38-yarder late in the fourth quarter and the 51-yard winner, plus three extra points, Crosby scored 12 points on Sunday night. With that, he passed Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud on the career scoring list and became the 18th player in NFL history with 1,700 career points.
“Been doing this a long time,” Crosby said. “Still, still excited every time those balls go through the uprights.”
