How Justin Tucker's record-setting FG helped set Detroit Lions on winning path
Jerry Jacobs had the worst 23rd birthday ever.
A rookie with the Detroit Lions at the time, Jacobs woke up the morning of Sept. 26, 2021, to learn his car had been stolen, a new Dodge Charger SRT, from outside a Southfield hotel.
Jacobs had lent his car to a few friends who were in town to celebrate his birthday and take in that day's Lions game against the Baltimore Ravens at Ford Field — a game that would rip Jacobs' heart out a second time that afternoon.
The Lions led by one point with 26 seconds to play when the Ravens converted an improbable fourth-and-19 from their own 16-yard line. The conversion put them on the fringe of field goal range, and after a spike to stop the clock and pass thrown purposely out of bounds, Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker came on to try a record-setting 66-yard field goal.
Jacobs, who played 13 snaps on special teams that day and was flagged for a penalty that nullified a late Ravens fumble, was on the sideline watching in disbelief as Tucker's kick hit the cross bar, bounced straight up in the air and tumbled forward through the uprights for a 19-17 Ravens victory.
Tucker's field goal remains the longest in NFL history by 2 yards.
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"I ain’t going to cap, I’ll never forget that day," Jacobs told the Free Press this week. "To this day I got to get their ass. I got to get the Ravens, cause I'm at least supposed to have won the game (and) forgot about the car."
Instead, Jacobs was in a sour mood as he celebrated his birthday postgame at dinner.
"The worst day ever," he said. "I didn’t think he was going to hit a 66. I thought he could get near it, but not like, ding. When I seen that, I've got a picture still to this day (where) I’m just like, 'What happened?'"
Two years later, with the Lions (5-1) set to face the Ravens (4-2) for the first time since that improbable loss, some players still occasionally ask themselves that question.
Alim McNeill, who was on the field as part of the Lions' field goal block unit for Tucker's kick, said he remembers "every single second about" the play.
“I remember him grunting to kick the ball, I remember where we was at on the field, I remember my reaction," McNeill said. "I remember my teammates' reactions. That was a bad moment for me, cause I was so shocked. I was like there’s no way we just lost the game for one, and there’s no way he just made this kick. Yeah. Yeah. We got some business to handle there."
The Ravens scored the first 13 points that game, on Tucker field goals of 39 and 50 yards and a 19-yard Lamar Jackson touchdown pass to Devin Duvernay. But the Lions, in the midst of an 0-10-1 start in Dan Campbell's first season as head coach, did a good job containing Jackson and the Ravens offense most of the day.
The Lions scored a pair of touchdowns in the second half and trailed, 16-14, when Amani Oruwariye intercepted a Jackson pass with just over five minutes to play. Jared Goff drove the Lions for the go-ahead field goal, and Baltimore started its final possession at its own 25-yard line following a touchback.
Sacks by Charles Harris and Romeo Okwara and a Jackson incompletion left the Ravens in fourth-and-19, but the Lions busted a coverage coming out of a timeout and Jackson, with no real pass rush to account for, was able to extend the play long enough to complete a 36-yard pass to the Lions' 48-yard line.
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"One guy was playing the wrong call," linebacker Alex Anzalone said. "I think it was after a timeout, too, so it was like, 'How did that happen?' It was just young guys making mistakes."
When Tucker came out for his kick, with so much field in front of him, Anzalone, who played as a safety on the kick block unit, thought the kick was too far even for Tucker to make.
"Either it was announced or I just saw where the placeholder was and I was like, 'There’s no way this is going in,'" Anzalone said. "And then it hit the cross bar and I thought it was bouncing out, and then I just saw the crowd either make a noise or just go silent. And I was like, 'There's no way this just happened.' ... It was outlandish."
Lions coach Dan Campbell said he's had flashbacks of that loss from time to time, and has come to realize defeats like that have helped steel the team he has now.
The Lions lost four times by a field goal or less that season, with three of those kicks coming as time expired. This year, with 14 of their 22 starters from the Ravens game still on their roster, the Lions have won four straight games by double digits and are tied for the best record in the NFL.
"I just remember thinking over and over it’s like, 'Enjoy it now. Just enjoy it now because our time will come,'" Campbell said. "And we’ve just got to get through the hard stuff. And here we go, man. We’ve got an opportunity. We’re in Year 3 of this program, 5-1 and we’ve got to go earn the next win, so everything that happens, happens for a reason and it helps you grow, and if it doesn’t, it’s because you don’t know how to grow. So, we’ve taken our lumps and we’re going to be better for it."
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ravens K Justin Tucker's record-setting FG still galls Detroit Lions
