For 59 minutes and 58 seconds Sunday night, Chad Ryland’s latest outing was his own version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
The rookie kicker badly missed a 47-yard field goal and clanged an extra point off the left upright during the New England Patriots Christmas Eve matchup with the Denver Broncos — four lost points in a game that went down to the wire.
Following the unsuccessful field goal, Ryland’s success rate this season was the lowest of any qualified NFL kicker. He’d made just 63.6% of his field-goal attempts on the year and missed four of his last six.
Then, with overtime looking likely, Ryland delivered. The fourth-round draft pick drilled a 56-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to give New England a dramatic 26-23 victory at Empower Field.
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It was the longest field goal of Ryland’s inauspicious young career — and by far the biggest, allowing the Patriots to escape with an upset victory after blowing a 16-point lead in the final nine minutes.
“Oftentimes, you find the greatest treasure in the darkest caves,” Ryland told reporters after the game, per team -provided video. “I’ve obviously been struggling a little bit this year, and I was really, really fortunate to be surrounded by a team that believes in me. And that helps me to continue to move forward with my process and then go ahead and knock the last one down.”
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Ryland, who’d missed kicks in recent losses to the Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs, said the support he received from his teammates helped him maintain his confidence.
“Honestly, I didn’t waver in confidence at all, because I knew the guys I had around me still believed in me and have believed in me all year,” he told reporters. “And that means more to an athlete, and even more so a kicker, that I think I could even put into words — just having that support system of the guys.”
Longtime special teams captain Matthew Slater, who missed Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury to snap a streak of 100 consecutive regular-season appearances, gave Ryland an in-game pick-me-up.
“You have guys like Matt Slater coming up to you and telling you, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to need you in the fourth quarter here. That’s what it’s turning out to be,’ ” Ryland told reporters. “And Matt the prophet, it came true. I’m super thankful and blessed to have a team around me that supports me through anything.”
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Asked whether he visualized himself making a kick like this, Ryland replied: “One thousand percent.”
“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t sitting in my hotel room last night thinking about it,” he said. “I try to think about it every week because I feel there’s some value in that. When you see yourself doing something before it gets there, once you get in the moment, you feel like you’ve been there before.”
This moment won’t win Ryland any long-term job security — head coach Bill Belichick only had muted praise for the kicker in his postgame news conference — but it was a bit of much-needed redemption amid a rough debut season. He’ll have two more games to build more momentum ahead of what’s likely to be another position battle this offseason.
Featured image via Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports Images
