In his Green Bay Packers debut, Brandon McManus kicked a 45-yard field goal on the final play to beat the Houston Texans 24-22.
Bill Huber | 2 Hours Ago
Green Bay Packers kicker Brandon McManus (17) celebrates after beating the Houston Texans with a game-winning field goal. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – A little more than a week ago, Brandon McManus was kicking in front of his young boys.
On Sunday, McManus’ first field goal attempt as a member of the Green Bay Packers came with victory or defeat hanging in the balance. With 78,197 sets of eyes glued to him, he lined up for a 45-yard field goal to beat the Houston Texans.
The pressure-packed kick was better than the celebratory Lambeau Leap.
“Not good. Not good,” he said of his Leap. “I had always heard it was taller than you think. This is an historic, historic place. Super-excited to come play here, and to have a chance to hit game-winner in Game 1, I knew I had to do it.”
It somehow was fitting that the decisive kick was from 45 yards. Last year’s kicker, rookie Anders Carlson, was 4-of-8 from between 40 and 49 yards. The kicker for the first six games of this year, rookie Brayden Narveson, was 5-of-9 range.
McManus for his career had hit almost 91 percent of his kicks from that distance.
The Texans called timeout before his first attempt, and he split the uprights. On the second, Matt Orzech’s snap was low.
“That’s all I was looking at, to be honest with you,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I was like ‘Uh-oh.’”
Not Whelan.
“It was great,” Whelan said. “We’ve practiced it a million times.”
But not with McManus, who worked out for the team on Tuesday and practiced for the first time on Wednesday.
“That’s why we do all this practicing,” McManus said. “We harp on it. Not only is it a practice situation for me, I think it is for everyone. Every person has to do their job on the last play because you know the people on the other side are doing their 100 percent to try and block the kick or put pressure on us.
“Danny did a phenomenal job holding all day. Matt did a great job snapping all day. It’s tough. I know they’ve had a little rotation of people here. I’m a little older, a little more strict in what I want them to do. So, they did a great job all week. I’m excited to be here.”
Not half as excited as the Packers are to have him.
After struggling through rookie kickers last season and the start of this season, the 33-year-old McManus has a Super Bowl ring and a history of big kicks.
“He’s got a lot of skins on the wall,” as special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said.
Just like the Packers had with Mason Crosby for more than a decade, the Packers now have a reliable kicker.
Josh Jacobs had that with Daniel Carlson while with the Raiders.
“You get a lot of morale in every situation,” Jacobs said. “Even if it’s before halftime or it’s whatever, you always feel like he’s going to make it. That’s how it was. Previously, we always knew. It was never a questionable thing. I know the history here in big games with kickers (and) kind of missing a lot. To be able to see him pull it off is definitely amazing for him.”
The game seemed destined to come down to a last-play kick by one of the teams. After the Texans kicked a field goal to take a 22-21 lead with 1:44 to play, the stage was set as the Packers took possession at their 30 with one timeout.
“You’ve got to go into each game understanding it might come down to you,” McManus said. “That’s why I chose this position many moons ago. I love the pressure situations. I was happy to have the opportunity today.”
Jordan Love, who threw two costly interceptions that the Texans turned into 10 points, knew he had to move the ball about 30 yards to give McManus a shot.
“It’s huge. It gives you confidence, gives the team confidence,” Love said. “Just knowing that we’ve got to get that ball to about the 30-yard line and that he’s going to be able to make that kick is huge. I think he came up big for us tonight.”
On the winning kick, McManus’ kick started just inside the left upright and that’s where it stayed until it faded a bit to the right as it split the uprights.
The Packers and their fans celebrated, with McManus and several of his new teammates running toward the Packers’ tunnel and Lambeau Leaping.
McManus was awarded a game ball by LaFleur.
“When I’m done playing, I’m sure I’ll reflect on it more,” McManus said. “But I’m just living in the moment, super-excited to play with such a historic organization, first game here, thank you guys for keeping the heaters on. It was nice and warm today still.
“Anytime I have a chance to help the team win, especially the last play of the game, after all the hard work they’ve put in, I’m honored to be able to help the team.”
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