New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski has tons of playoff and Super Bowl experience, so Sunday night's Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams was nothing new to him.
However, in the first quarter, Gostkowski unusually shanked a 46-yard field goal that would have given the Patriots an early 3-0 lead.
Did the miss make Gostkowski a little nervous? Hardly.
He then went on to make a 42-yarder in the second quarter to give New England a 3-0 edge heading into halftime, and then, with 1:12 remaining in the fourth period, Gostkowski sealed the game by giving the Patriots a 13-3 lead with a 41-yard boot.
“I was weirdly calm, maybe a lot calmer than the first kick that I screwed up,” Gostkowski said of his fourth-quarter make, according to Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston. “It's just an exciting feeling to do that, you know, win a championship. The guys played so hard and it would have been an injustice for me not to make that kick.”
Gostkowski has now actually missed field goals in each of the last three Super Bowls, but the miscues don't seem to bother him at all:
“I don't know. Sometimes for me it takes a screw-up to get me locked in. I don't know why,” Gostkowski told Curran. “It's a weird position; I wish I would have made all my kicks. But I'm just so happy that we won and we're champions and to be able to put the game away like that was pretty special.”
The 35-year-old has been the Patriots' kicker since 2006 and has won three Super Bowls with the team.
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