Gould shares credit with backup unit on 57-yard FG

SHARE Gould shares credit with backup unit on 57-yard FG

There aren’t too many plays in the final minutes of an NFL preseason game that ultimately matter, but Robbie Gould’s winning field goal is one of them. A 57-yard field goal is a 57-yard field goal no matter how many reserves who won’t make either team are on the field.

But Gould, the most accurate kicker in team history and the fifth most accurate in NFL history, said he didn’t need a long kick in the preseason to prove he can kick them when it counts. He was 6-of-6 on 50-plus field goal attempts last season and is 11-of-13 in the past three seasons after going 0-for-2 in his first four years in the NFL.

”It doesn’t really matter to me. This is my eighth year,” Gould said. ”I’m just glad to get the opportunity and glad we made it. Everyone did a great job. It was a lot of fun.”

The field goal tied Gould’s all-time longest in the NFL. He kicked a 57-yarder against the Broncos in Denver. But this one was at virtual sea level. It looked like Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey throwing a strike from second base — fluttering just over the crossbar near the left upright. But it’ll look like a Sebastian Janikowski bomb in the box score.

And the degree-of-difficulty was higher on this one. The Bears had their second-team field goal unit in the game, with fullback Tyler Clutts snapping and backup punter Ryan Quigley holding.

”Everybody did an awesome job … holding, snapping, blocking,” an appreciative Gould said. ”Quigley and Clutts did a great job getting it down. Blanchard did a great job with the offense, leading them down the field. We were lucky enough to get in range … I got lucky to get it over the bar.”

The Latest
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.