Joe Burrow shares message from Evan McPherson moments before Bengals game-winning kick

Cincinnati Bengals rookie kicker Evan McPherson was the hero on Saturday night in the Divisional Round matchup against the AFC’s top seeded Tennessee Titans. McPherson stepped up as time expired, drilling a 52-yard field goal to secure the win for the Bengals. Prior to the kick, McPherson certainly wasn’t lacking confidence.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said after the game that McPherson had a simple message as he stepped up for the kick. He already knew that it was going in.

“That guy is unbelievable,” Burrow said, via Pro Football Talk. “He was talking to Brandon [Allen] as he was going out to kick, and he gave a little warmup swing and he said, ‘Ah, it looks like we’re going to the AFC Championship,’ right before he went out there and kicked it. We knew exactly what we had as soon as he walked into the building in camp and we just saw how he carried himself.

“You know exactly how a kicker is going to perform when obviously everyone at this level can kick through the uprights, but it’s how you handle yourself in the locker room that shows us that you have the confidence to go out there and make a kick like this and perform the way he did in a game like this. We knew exactly what kind of guy we had in camp.”

McPherson has had an impressive rookie year with the Bengals

McPherson was selected in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Bengals after playing college football for the Florida Gators. He has proven to be extremely worthy of that selection, and then some.

On the year, McPherson has drilled four game-winning kicks. He did so in Week 1, Week 4, Week 17, and now in the playoffs. So far, McPherson has made all eight of his field goal attempts on the Bengals’ playoff run. he made 28 of his 33 field goal attempts in the regular season.

The Bengals will face the winner of Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. Whoever wins that game will host next week’s AFC Championship game. No matter who the Bengals go up against, they are confident that, if needed, McPherson will step up and drill a kick when his name his called. Having that luxury is definitely not something that every NFL team has, and it has proven to be extremely valuable in the playoffs so far.