Justin Tucker is just incredible, both on the field and the mic.
The Ravens and Bengals played to the final possession of their Week 5 “Sunday Night Football” matchup, when it came down to Tucker’s leg.
Unsurprisingly, Tucker came through for the Ravens once again, nailing the 19th game-winning kick of his career, and it was a beauty.
“JUSTIN TUCKER WINS IT FOR BALTIMORE!”
Back in action Sunday at 1 pm on CBS! pic.twitter.com/Y7O5qHGo6A
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 10, 2022
MORE: Zac Taylor admits fatal flaw in Bengals’ play calling
Following the game, Tucker delivered an epic, thoughtful and entertaining response to his mindset about his craft, and featured some key buzzwords that get NFL talk-show hosts going.
Dying at Justin Tucker’s interview describing the process of a field goal including the terms “game winning hold” and “system kicker” pic.twitter.com/lvgHmrX7dp
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) October 10, 2022
Tucker’s response in full:
I mean, I love it and I hate it and everything in between. I’d be lying to you if I said every time I go out there, I’m not just a little bit nervous, I’m not thinking about worst-case scenario. But it’s really important to me, and to us, to take those 1.3 seconds between the snap, the hold and the kick and just focus on the nuts and bolts on what’s going to make the kick.
My feelings don’t matter. What matters is, seeing the ball snapped with 12 o’clock laces from Nick Moore, seeing the ball spotted cleanly from Jordan Stout, his first career game-winning hold. And then from there I’m just a system kicker, the ball kicks itself at that point. All we’re really thinking about is those things that are going to make the kick. All the feelings and stuff, we can enjoy them after the fact.
Of course, there are a few points of entertainment from Tucker here here: Praising punter/holder Jordan Stout for his first career “game-winning hold,” and naming himself a “system kicker” are both sarcastic highlights from the interview.
MORE: Week 6 fantasy football kicker rankings
On a more serious note, it’s nice to hear kickers, notorious headcases holding down one of the most thankless possessions on the football field, get a bit more philosophical on the science of kicking.
To that end, no one is better to dissect the kicking game than Tucker, whose game-winner was as perfect as his post-game interview:
Using @NextGenStats ball tracking data, Justin Tucker’s game winning field goal crossed the upright with a y-coordinate (width of field) of 26.52.
The exact middle of the field is y= 26.67
That is, if the uprights were half a yard wide, the kick would have still been good
— Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) October 10, 2022
Who knew kickers had so much personality?
Hits: 0
