Lions kicker Jake Bates made three field goals of 60 or more yards during the most recent UFL season, and Lions coach Dan Campbell thinks Bates could conceivably make one from beyond 70 yards.
Campbell said that on Monday night, he was thinking about how long a field goal Bates could make and would have considered sending Bates out to try a 73-yard field goal. At the end of the first half on Monday, the Lions returned a Seahawks missed field goal to their own 22-yard line, and the Seahawks committed a facemasking penalty that gave the Lions an opportunity for an untimed down from their own 37-yard line. Campbell declined the penalty and went into halftime, but he said that if the penalty had taken the Lions out to their own 45-yard line, he might have had Bates try a 73-yard field goal before halftime.
“I was trying to get him there,” Campbell said. “That’s probably a little much, if I thought we could’ve gotten to the minus-45 it would have been worth it just to see him swing at one. I would have liked to see that too. I told [Lions special teams coach Dave Fipp] today, it would have been nice to let him swing at one, but we couldn’t quite get there. . . . It was just too far. . . . If it’s a little low, it gets blocked and it’s too much of a risk.”
The NFL record is 66 yards, but there are several kickers who appear capable of making a field goal from farther out than that, if given the chance. Bates is one of them, and Campbell might just give him a chance to make one from beyond 70, if the right situation arises.
