Crosby three-deems himself
After missing 3 big field goals, he nails winner for Pack in OT
CINCINNATI — Packers kicker Mason Crosby was having a nightmarish Sunday as the afternoon grew late and a stiff wind kept the flags billowing right to left in Paul Brown Stadium.
The historically reliable kicker missed three consecutive potential winning field goals before hitting a 49-yarder in overtime to lift Green Bay (4-1) to a wild 25-22 win over the Bengals.
Crosby had a chance to hit a potentially decisive kick with 2:12 left and again with three seconds to go in regulation. Both went wide left. He got another chance to win it in overtime, but again he missed left.
Improbably, he got one more try to redeem himself.
“The fact that we kept getting opportunities, you’ve got to give it up to our team, the way we fought to get in that position again,” said Crosby, who had converted all six field goals and 11 PATs in the first four games. “And I just wanted so badly to come through there. I had a couple go bad there, and I’m just happy to hit that last one. There was a little bit of relief.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur talked to Crosby before deciding to send him back out again on fourthand-inches from the Cincinnati 32.
“I did what I thought in my gut was the right thing to do,” LaFleur said.
The Bengals’ Evan McPherson also missed on shots that could have won the game — with 26 seconds left in regulation and again in overtime.
“Both teams tried to lose that game a few times,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
McPherson thought he won it in overtime. He jumped into the arms of holder Kevin Huber after the kick.
“I mean, I couldn’t really tell you, maybe a big gust of wind caught it at the last second, but I struck it well,” McPherson said.
Cincinnati had tied the score late in the fourth quarter. Joe Mixon bounced right for an eight-yard touchdown run, and Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion with 3:27 left.
Crosby was set up for a 36-yard shot with 2:12 left. After that miss, the Bengals drove to the Packers’ 47, but McPherson’s attempt bounced off the right upright with 26 seconds left. Then it was Crosby’s turn to miss again, a 51-yard attempt.
In overtime, Burrow was intercepted by linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, but Crosby missed his third in a row.
“That thing was a roller coaster,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “I don’t know how we ended up in the situation we were in.”
The Bengals had their opportunities after closing the score to 1614 at the half, then tying it late.
“We weren’t in unmanageable situations,” Taylor said. “Just couldn’t quite get in that rhythm, and in the second half, it just seemed like we had much longer possessions and kind of got in the flow and called the game the way we wanted to.”
Burrow was taken to the hospital as a precaution after the game for a possible throat bruise, the team said. He threw for 260 yards and two touchdowns but also took a beating from the Green Bay defense.