Getty Matt Prater celebrates his winning kick vs. Washington.
The Detroit Lions got another big set of kicks from Matt Prater, and as a result, the kicker took home another sterling award of recognition for his work on the field in Week 10.
This week, Prater was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week winner. It comes on the heels of a weekend where Prater drilled 2 field goals from 53 and 59 yards out and was perfect on extra points. The 59 yard field goal also helped Detroit beat the Washington Football Team.
.@Lions K @MattPrater_5 has been named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. This marks the 1st time he’s won multiple awards in a season since 2016.
His 7 P.O.T.W. awards for Detroit rank as the 3rd-most:
1. J. Hanson (12)
2. B. Sanders (11)
3. M. Prater (7)
As a whole, special teams awards are nothing new for the Lions this season. Already, the team has seen Jack Fox be the special teams player of the month for September. Prater is no stranger to this award during his career either, having won it a whopping 12 times total, 7 of which have come in a Detroit uniform.
The hope now is that Prater’s consistent week of kicking gets him back to a good place mentally. Prater had struggled from distance this year, but Week 10 as well as this award could be just what the doctor ordered to get his confidence back on the right track.
Matt Prater’s Game Winning Kick Video 2020
With 16 seconds left in the tie game and 3 timeouts left, the Lions put together a quick strike drive, setting Matt Prater up for a 59 yard field goal. Even though Prater had struggled at times this year, he managed to line up and drill the kick. The boot may have been good from even longer the flush way Prater hit the ball.
Here’s a look at the play:
59 yards FOR THE WIN!!
Another @MattPrater_5 walkoff 🙌
The Lions had blown a huge lead and allowed Washington to kick a long field goal late in the game in order to tie the score. It appeared as if things were heading for overtime, but Stafford once again proved why he is one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the league. It took him a short amount of time to thread the needle downfield and put the finishing touches on the big win. As he likely knew, all he needed to do was get Prater a chance from deep to have a chance at the win.
It was yet another signature moment for Prater in Detroit, and one which led to him claiming another award for his work.
Matt Prater Having Rocky 2020 Season
This season, one of the strangest anomalies of the year has been Prater’s erratic nature from deep. Typically dependable from beyond 50 yards, Prater hadn’t managed to make many deep kicks and had missed plenty of long attempts. That all ended last weekend, as Prater pounded a 53 yard kick as well as the game winning 59 yard kick as time expired.
In recent weeks, there had been questions swirling about Prater’s dependability. Even such, Prater is 17-23 on kicks this season and also has a game winning 48 yard extra point to his credit in Atlanta.
It’s nice to see Prater get back on track with another huge kick as well as another huge award for what continues to be an awesome career.
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