Brandon Aubrey has quickly become one of the most popular players on the Dallas Cowboys, as he has shown to have one of the biggest legs in the history of the sport. On Sunday, he delivered in a huge way in the Cowboys 40-37 overtime victory against the New York Giants.
He made NFL history as he became the first kicker in league history to make a kick with no time left in regulation to tie a game and a kick to win the game with no time left in overtime.
First, the Cowboys were trailing by three points in the fourth quarter after a wild back-and-forth exchange where the two points combined for 41 points.
The Cowboys were able to get to the Giants 46-yard line with only five seconds left, and Aubrey responded by making a 64-yard field goal to send the game to overtime.
That kick is the second longest of his career, as he hit a 65-yard field goal in a game last season against the Baltimore Ravens.
In overtime, Aubrey once again got the opportunity to make a kick at the end of the period, and he delivered the Cowboys to the win with a 46-yard field goal at the end of the overtime.
While it was only Week 2, Aubrey saved the Cowboys from entering a deep hole already in the NFC East. Starting out 0-2 would have made things very difficult to compete in the division, as the Philadelphia Eagles moved to 2-0 with a 20-17 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Aubrey is in his third season out of Notre Dame, and he has proven to be one of the best kickers in the entire NFL.
After his performance on Sunday, he is now 78-of-87 on field goal attempts, good for 89.7%. That number being so high is impressive when nearly a third of his field goals have been from 50 yards or more, and he has made 25-of-28 from that distance.
The ability of Aubrey to be nearly automatic on field goals takes a lot of pressure off of Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense. With the new kicking rules, possessions are off often starting at the 30 or 35-yard line.
If the Cowboys are able to get two, maybe three first downs a drive, they are nearly guaranteed to get three points from Aubrey.
It was a great day in Dallas on Sunday, as coach Brian Schottenheimer picked up his first win as the Cowboys coach. The team will look to build off that in Week 3 when the Cowboys travel to take on a Chicago Bears team that dropped to 0-2 after losing to the Detroit Lions, 52-21 on Sunday afternoon.