Super Bowl a big kick for ex-Owl McManus
SAN FRANCISCO - Brandon McManus hopes Super Bowl 50 comes down to him. He wants to be Adam Vinatieri, who booted a 48-yard field goal for the Patriots with no time left
SAN FRANCISCO -
Brandon McManus hopes Super Bowl 50 comes down to him.
He wants to be Adam Vinatieri, who booted a 48-yard field goal for the Patriots with no time left
to beat the Rams in Super Bowl
XXXVI and a 41-yarder with four seconds on the clock to beat the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
He wants to be the Colts' Jim O'Brien, whose 32-yarder with five seconds left beat the Cowboys in Super Bowl V.
He doesn't want to be Scott Norwood, whose 47-yard miss as time expired in Super Bowl XXV started Buffalo's string for four straight Super Bowl losses.
"Every game you play, you're always thinking it might come down to your foot," said the North Penn High and Temple product, who very well could be the difference between victory and defeat for the Broncos Sunday night. "Especially a game like this where you have two good defenses.
"Back in the day, I used to watch Vinatieri kick game-winning field goals all the time. It just may come down to my foot. I've prepared my whole life to get to this point and have that game-winning kick. If it comes down to me at the end, I'll be ready."
McManus booted a school-record 60 field goals at Temple. Was an All-Big East selection as a senior. He signed with Indianapolis in 2013, but was unsurprisingly waived. Unsurprisingly, because the team's other kicker happened to be the aforementioned Vinatieri.
He signed with the Giants in 2014 but was traded to the Broncos right before the season when their kicker, Matt Prater, was slapped with a season-opening four-game suspension for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
Prater eventually was released, but McManus couldn't hold onto the job. He was waived that November, replaced by Connor Barth and then re-signed to be the team's kickoff specialist.
He beat out Barth last summer and has had a pretty solid season, converting 30 of 35 field goals, including five of seven from 50-plus yards. In the Broncos' season-opening, 19-13 win over Baltimore, he became just the third kicker in league history to make two field goals of 56 or more yards in the same game. He also finished with the league's seventh-best touchback rate on kickoffs (69.6 percent).
"I was kind of humbled last year," McManus said. "I was coming in behind Matt Prater, who had just set the NFL record (for the longest field goal) and had been an outstanding kicker in this league for a while. So I had to go through some things initially.
"Last year didn't go like I wanted. They brought Connor in. I was able to go back to the drawing board (and make some) technique changes. I got to focus on just kicking off and work on my technique in practice, which has really helped me this year."
In Week 6, McManus made a field goal in overtime to beat the Browns. In Week 16, he missed a 45-yarder with no time left in regulation against Cincinnati but rebounded with yet another game-winner in overtime.
In the Broncos' 23-16, divisional-round playoff win over Pittsburgh, McManus kicked five field goals, including 45- and 51-yarders. Nailed two field goals, including a 52-yarder, in their 20-18 win over New England in the AFC Championship Game.
McManus never has doubted the strength of his leg.
"My sophomore or junior year at Temple, I was able to kick with some NFL guys and kind of compare myself to them and see where I was at," he said.
"The big thing is you have to be accurate to stay in this league. Everyone's got big legs in this league. Accuracy is how you're going to keep your job."
McManus made a key adjustment in his mechanics last year after losing the kicking job to Barth.
"Probably 50 percent of the kickers in this league are 2 1/2-step kickers," he said. "The other 50 percent are two-step guys. I was at 2 1/2. I didn't really need that extra half-step. I already had a strong leg. So I just eliminated that half-step. It's allowed me to be in the same spot every time when I approach the ball and kick it."
McManus actually has two Super Bowl dreams. One is to win the game with a field goal. The other is to run it. Not the ball. The game itself.
He majored in biology/pre-med at Temple, but has become more interested in being an event planner than a doctor when his kicking career is over.
"I'm playing in the Super Bowl, and hopefully, someday, I'll be a part of running one," he said.
Last summer, through an NFL internship program, he helped out at the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster Country Club.
"We were able to put a package together where I was able to go out and work the tournament," he said. "It was in my home state. I found out everything that goes into a large golf tournament. Learn as I go."
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