Lorenzo Neal showed his confidence in Matt Stover shortly before they prayed during the Ravens’ chapel service in the team hotel prior to taking the field against the Titans.
“I told him we can do this,” Neal said. “God gave us this platform to do it.”
But the Ravens didn’t need divine intervention –just Stover’s right foot. The 40-year-old calmly kicked a 43-yard field goal with 53 seconds remaining to lift his team to a 13-10 victory over Tennessee at LP Field.
“I felt the Lord really prepared me for that kick,” Stover said. “Everyone did a great job getting us in position for that kick.”
Neal replied: “Simply amazing. As soon as he stepped out there, I knew he was going to make it. As he walked out on the field he told me, ‘Loâ I want to make a play because it’s going to come down to me.'”
For Stover, his first game-winning kick in the postseason in his 18-year career couldn’t have come at a better time. Stover’s future with the team appeared uncertain after he missed three of his first seven field goals this season.
It got so bad for Stover that he was replaced on long field goals by rookie Steve Hauschka, who made a 54-yarder in a 41-13 win at the Houston Texans on Nov. 9.
“It felt like over the course of the season I missed that I wish I could have had back, including one against Tennessee, which cost us because we lost by three,” said Stover, referring to the Ravens’ 13-10 loss to the Titans on Oct. 5. “But when the game counted and the opportunity showed itself again, the team did such a great job.”
Stover has made 27-of-30 attempts since his bad start, including all four in the playoffs, as he’s played the past month with a high ankle sprain on his kicking foot.
“You’re only as good as your last kick, and I try to keep that in mind,” said Stover, who has made 14 game-winning kicks in his career. “You’d think that after 18 seasons, it would be easy, but it’s not. It’s not.”
But for most of his career, Stover has made it seem easy. He has converted 83.7 percent of his field goal attempts — third best in NFL history. He also finished the regular season with 122 points, marking the sixth straight season he has reached the century point.
“It is almost unbelievable,” said Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who has played with Stover since the team arrived in Baltimore in 1996. “We have been together for some game-winning field goals. Every time I see it is almost about to come down to that, I walk over to him and always say, ‘It is already done.’ He always delivers. He is clutch, man. Stover is clutch.”
Added Ravens coach John Harbaugh: “There is one more to tack on to a fabulous career by Matt Stover.”
