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    • Jake Bates’ game-winning field goal highlights the wild comeback story
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    Jake Bates’ game-winning field goal highlights the wild comeback story

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    Few knew what to expect from Jake Bates when the Detroit Lions signed him as their kicker during the 2024 NFL offseason.

    Bates was coming off a successful season for the UFL’s Michigan Panthers, but it was the first time he had made field goals since high school. A football player by trade, he had been a brick salesman in the Houston area before the UFL called to give him a chance to kick professionally.

    Ten weeks into his first NFL season, there is little reason to doubt that Bates belongs in the NFL. He added another chapter to his unlikely story on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 10 against the Houston Texans.

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    Jake Bates’ game-winning field goal

    The Lions called on Bates at the end of regulation to make a game-winning 52-yard field goal. If Bates were to convert the kick, it would be his second goal from more than 50 yards during the final five minutes of the game and it would provide a 16-point come-from-behind victory for Detroit.

    That the attempt came from 52 meters was somewhat of a surprise. The Lions still had time to try to get closer to the uprights, but coach Dan Campbell opted not to play too aggressively. He turned back the clock and set up Bates for the game-winning try that Campbell thought his freshman kicker would make.

    “It was the first thing I thought of when I looked at him… and it just made me feel good,” Campbell told Lions.com. “I just had a feeling he was going to make it.”

    Bates rewarded Campbell’s faith. Although his attempt wasn’t his most accurate, he placed it just far enough inside the left upright to give Detroit the win.

    Naturally, the Lions were thrilled with Bates’ performance. After the game, his teammates carried him on their shoulders, and Campbell awarded him a game ball for his game-winning kick.

    According to the Houston Chronicle, after making the kick, Bates acknowledged that the moment was almost “too good to be true.”

    “I just don’t deserve this,” Bates told Lions.com. “I was a football player growing up. I idolized football players in the NFL. Just to be here is surreal. I still find myself pinching myself a little bit.”

    Bates doesn’t have to pinch himself much longer. He has established himself as one of the best and most accurate kickers in the league early in his first NFL season.

    Jake Bates stats

    Bates is now a perfect 14 of 14 in field goal attempts to start the 2024 NFL season. He still has a long way to go to match fellow alumnus Brandon Aubrey’s streak of 35 consecutive goals to start a career, but Bates is the only kicker with more than 10 field goal attempts who is still perfect this season.

    Bates missed an extra point, but only one. He’s 32 of 33 on those kicks so far.

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    Jake Bates longest field goal

    The longest field goal of Bates’ career is the 58-yarder he made in the Lions’ Week 10 win over the Texans. He snuck the tie attempt just inside the right upright, giving him a new record.

    Bates has now made three field goals from more than 50 yards during his career. Two of those came during Detroit’s comeback win over Houston.

    The Lions will host the Jaguars in Week 11.

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