NASHUA – Last Saturday, a double-overtime, 47-yard kick through the uprights at Sports Authority Field sent the Baltimore Ravens on to an AFC Championship Game rematch with the New England Patriots.
The long, straight launch off the foot of James Tucker destroyed any visions of postseason revenge between Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and an Archie Manning offspring, once possible with a Denver Broncos matchup against Peyton Manning.
But Tucker’s field goal did refresh the collective breath-holding that area fans shared last year as the final seconds of the 2012 AFC Championship Game ticked down between familiar foes.
With 15 seconds to go, then-Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff lined up for his own 32-yard field goal attempt in Patriots Country, trying to make the score 23-23 and send the game into overtime.
Instead, Cundiff sent the pigskin sailing high, wide and left of the posts of Gillette Stadium – and the Patriots marched on to their fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 years.
“It was crazy,” said Kyle Regan, a Nashua High School North senior and kicker for the Titans football team. “I wouldn’t know what to do in that situation.”
The aftermath of Cundiff’s miss prompted wisecracks and memes for weeks, many comparing Cundiff to Ace Ventura movie character Ray Finkle – a crazed Miami Dolphins kicker who becomes obsessed with Dan Marino following a botched field goal.
“He just hooked it,” Ryan Guidaboni, a sophomore soccer player who punts and kicks for Nashua High School South, said of Cundiff. “I always think about that if I come across my body too much or I don’t hit it the right away. I try not to think about it.”
Judging by a story in The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday, Tucker, too, is trying his best to block Cundiff’s choke from his mind.
“My response has always been the same – what’s in the past is in the past,” Tucker told Sun reporters before practice Wednesday.![]()
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