Cincinnati's Evan McPherson on Sunday booted four field goals, set an NFL record, and – more significantly – catapulted the Bengals to their first Super Bowl since the 1988 season with another walk-off kick.
McPherson also continued to represent his Christian faith in a public way, wearing a "God is good" T-shirt to a postgame news conference and referencing his faith on social media.
"To God be the glory!!" he wrote on Instagram.
The Bengals will face the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl on Feb. 13.
In the span of five months, McPherson – a rookie – has become a household name among NFL fans, thanks to his heroics in the regular season and the postseason.
His 20-yard-field goal in overtime lifted Cincinnati to a 34-31 overtime win over the favored and home-standing Kansas City Chiefs, one week after he kicked a 52-yard walk-off field goal to upset the top-seeded Tennessee Titans.
He is the first placekicker in NFL history to make 12 postseason field goals without a miss and the first rookie placekicker to make 12 postseason field goals, according to CBS Sports. He was 4-for-4 on field goals in the postseason against the Chiefs, Titans and Oakland Raiders.
All total, he has five game-winning walk-off kicks for the season.
His game-winner Sunday took place after the Bengals intercepted Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals' offense then drove methodically down the field, setting up the final kick.
"It's so surreal that this game came down to a field goal," McPherson said in the postgame news conference. "And obviously, it wasn't just me. Our defense put us in a great position with the interception, and then our offense obviously I had a lot of confidence in them that they were going to drive it down."
The Bengals trailed 21-10 at halftime.
"Nobody blinked an eye," McPherson said. "We all thought that you know we were definitely going to come back and find a way to win, and that's what we've done throughout the whole year. I think a lot of people probably wrote us off there at halftime, but we're a confident bunch of guys."
McPherson was drafted in the fifth round out of the University of Florida. He grew up attending First Baptist Church in Fort Payne, Ala., according to Baptist Press.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Andy Lyons/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
