Matt Gay's heroics show the importance of a stud placekicker

The Colts' kicker set an NFL record with four field goals of more than 50 yards, and Indy pulled off the overtime upset of the Ravens in rainy, gloomy Baltimore.

MY COUCH, Ind. – It’s not just that Matt Gay kicked field goals of 53, 53, 53 and 54 yards, the winner coming on a no doubter of a 53-yarder in overtime of their shocking 22-19 overtime victory over the Baltimore Ravens, but all those kicks were absolute bombs that bisected the uprights, not a foot to the right, not a foot to the left..just down the middle.

To quote Tony Dungy, who watched Adam Vinatieri kick five field goals in the Colts’ unlikely 15-6 playoff victory at Baltimore in January 2007:

“Money.”

And Gay did the deed right there in Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker’s house, MT&T Stadium, where Tucker has established himself as the greatest placekicker of all time. But there was the Colts’ kicker, a big-dollar free agent acquisition (by kicking standards), out-dueling Tucker, who had missed a 61-yard attempt just moments earlier. In the process, he became the first kicker in history to make four 50-yard-plus kicks in a single game.

Can we go ahead and call that the greatest single-game kicking performance in NFL history?

Hell yes, we can.

Still think Chris Ballard overpaid for a kicker?

Hell, no.