Jake Bates can remember the exact moment everything started to slow down a bit and come together for him this season.
"There was a moment in the Cowboys game (Week 6) actually that I felt like, it didn't click because kicking is never going to click, no one is ever going to have it completely figured out, but I felt like during the Cowboys game, there was one extra point where I finally figured out this is what I'm doing wrong and this is why I'm doing this. This is why so many of my extra points are going so far right."
Bates struggled a little bit in training camp with inconsistency and was pushing his extra points to the right dangerously close to the upright early in the season. He said during that Dallas game he noticed he was rushing his second step a little bit and he just needed to slow himself down.
Bates went on to make 26 of his 29 field goal attempts during the regular season and added 64 extra point makes. That adds up to 142 points, which set a new franchise record for points in a season.
It was a simple matter of slowing down and not rushing, and when Bates figured it out, he became one of the more consistent kickers in the NFL this season.
In Week 7 at Minnesota, he kicked a game-winning 44-yard field goal with 15 seconds left. In Week 10 at Houston, Bates converted a 58-yard game-tying field goal and a walk-off, game-winning 52-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, becoming the first player in NFL history to kick a 55-plus-yard game-tying field goal and a 50-plus-yard game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter of the same game.
In Week 14, he produced his third game-winning field goal of the season from 35 yards out as time expired to give the Lions the win on Thursday night over the Packers.
Bates scored 10-plus points in seven different games for the Lions this season and made 19 straight field goals to start his career before his first miss.
"I think there's so much to be said about the people around me that have helped so much," Bates said. "With (Dave) Fipp and Jack (Fox) and Hogan (Hatten) and kind of building that trust and knowing that when the ball gets snapped back to Jack, Jack is going to get it down because he's a good holder, and sometimes that takes a long time to fully develop that trust.
"I think I had a lot of growing to do mentally and physically and I had to get ready for a stage I hadn't been on. Just calming down and being like, 'I belong here.' I think that helped me a lot."
Bates certainly belongs. He's got one of the strongest legs in the game and has been consistent for the Lions this season, which has to be comforting for head coach Dan Campbell knowing that in a win-or-go-home scenario he's got a kicker in Bates who's been so good in big moments all season long.
