By Tyler Glessner
The Bengals 23-20 loss at home Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be one they wish they could have back. As after 5 Joe Burrow turnovers, they were still in a good position to win the game late.
It would all be for nothing, as an injury to Bengals long snapper Clark Harris would thrust Bengals reserve tight end Mitchell Wilcox to the starting Long Snapper role.
Wilcox would make 2 vital mistakes, as after a Ja’Marr Chase TD with no time left would tie the game at 20, all the Bengals needed was the point after attempt to put their rival Steelers away. Yet it would be all for nothing, as Wilcox’s snap came back too slow, giving Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick ample time to block the kick.
When looking at advanced data, what’s considered a good snap in today’s game is any snap under 3⁄4 of a second, Wilcox’s snap came back with a time just around 1.2-1.4 seconds, giving Minkah enough time with his speed to block the PAT.
Despite this, the Steelers struggling offense would give the Bengals special teams one last try, as in OT Wilcox would set up for another snap, and here was the second mistake. Not only would the snap come back too slow, but it would be too high as well. Causing Bengals kicker Evan McPherson’s timing to be off pushing the field goal wide left.
Kicking in today’s game comes down to more of a science. Everything starts from the long snapper-punter exchange. Long snappers are expected to get the ball back in under 3⁄4 of a second while having the ball spin ever so tightly, that it can make the holder (usually the teams punter) be able to set it down with the laces of the football pointing away from the kicker.
With the snap being high, and with not much spin in long snapping terms. It forced McPherson to snap this kick left.
It was a brutal day all around for Cincinnati, as it saw its offense giveaway the ball 5 times in the game, 3 times in the first quarter alone.
No one will fault Wilcox for today’s loss, as the last thing he expected for today’s game was probably to long snap 2 game winning kick attempts. But today serves as a great proving point to the great, old time football saying. Long Snappers are people too.
