Eagles rookie kicker Jake Elliott missed a 52-yard field goal in the second half of Sunday’s game against the Giants that might have made last-second fireworks unnecessary, but he more than made up for the miss.
After a Carson Wentz pass to Alshon Jeffery left the Eagles on the Giants’ 43-yard-line with a second to play, coach Doug Pederson called on Elliott to try a 61-yard field goal rather than go for a Hail Mary. Elliott, who said he was “demoralized” by the earlier miss, had never made a kick that far in a game before and said that he didn’t warm up from that distance before the game, but that didn’t stop him from knocking it through for a 27-24 win.
Just don’t ask him for a detailed account of what he was feeling at the time.
“It’s kind of all a blur to me,” Elliott said in comments distributed by the team. “I don’t really know; all I know is that the ball was in the air for a really long time and [it was] real close to that right upright.”
Elliott’s make touched off a celebration that found him “just kind of running around trying not to get hurt” before he was ultimately carried off the field by his teammates. That’s not a bad ending for any player and a particularly good one for a player who lost a kicking competition in Cincinnati before landing with the Eagles due to Caleb Sturgis’ injury.