Jake Bates has one of the strongest legs in the NFL, but in a key situation Sunday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell was hesitant to use it.
Campbell passed on a 59-yard field-goal try with about 13 minutes left in the Lions' 20-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Campbell said he trusted his defense would get the ball back for his offense, which it did. But the Lions failed to score on their final three possessions to lose for the first time this year.
"That's something we kind of talked about this week was, they got a pretty good punter over there, if we get in one of these, I would rather use (Jack) Fox," Campbell said after the game. "From the time we started in spring, let's get in there and let's try to kick it inside the 10, pin them, play defense."
Bates, in his first NFL season, made three field goals of 60-plus yards with the Michigan Panthers of the UFL this spring and hit a 55-yarder outdoors this preseason in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
He's 5-for-5 on field goals in the regular season, but hasn't attempted a kick longer than 35 yards.
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On Sunday, the Lions trailed by four points early in the fourth quarter when they faced a fourth-and-7 at the Tampa 41-yard line.
Fox, one of the NFL's best punters, pinned Tampa at the 9-yard line with his punt, and the Bucs gained one first down before punting the ball back to Detroit.
The Lions started their final three possessions near midfield and crossed the Tampa 30-yard line on all three drives, but Jared Goff threw an interception on the first possession and the Lions turned the ball over on downs twice in the final two minutes.
Had they made one more field goal earlier in the game, either Bates from long distance or just before halftime when they were penalized for too many men on the field while trying to spike the ball to stop the clock, they could have sent Bates on for the potential game-winning kick on one of their final two possessions.
"Felt like we had enough time," Campbell said. "We had probably a couple of possessions left before that, was how I felt."