Los Angeles Chargers placekicker Cameron Dicker connected on a 57-yard free-kick field goal on Thursday, in an incredibly rare play that early-to-bed East Coast residents and linear TV watchers probably missed.
The Chargers came from behind to beat the visiting Denver Broncos, 34-27, with a rally touched off on Prime Video's "Thursday Night Football" by Dicker's unhindered field goal to end the first half.
It was the NFL's first successful free-kick field goal since Ray Wersching of the then-San Diego Chargers connected from 45 yards out against the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 21, 1976.
Wersching happened to be watching Thursday night's game and was smiling ear-to-ear, laughing when Dicker made the rare score. Wersching said he has no regrets now that he's no longer the last person to score in that rare manner.
"No, not at all, I've had my run," the 74-year-old Wersching told NBC News on Friday. "It was a good long time."
With the Broncos leading 21-10 in the closing seconds of the second quarter, Denver was forced to punt on fourth-and-12 from its own 16-yard line.
L.A. punt returner Derius Davis was poised to make a fair catch at his own 38-yard line. A fair catch is a common football play, when a kick receiver signals he'll reel in the boot and surrender any chance for a return in exchange for him not being hindered.
Davis didn't catch the ball because he was illegally touched by Denver’s Tremon Smith, and that fair-catch interference drew a 15-yard penalty, moving Los Angeles up to Denver's 47-yard line.
With no time left on the clock, many fans watching at home or in attendance at SoFi Stadium surely believed the half was over. But "Thursday Night Football" rules analyst Terry McAulay immediately told viewers to stay on their couch: "They can do a free kick for a field goal, which we haven't seen in ... forever."
In a fair-catch kick, the receiving team is allowed to try a field goal from the line of scrimmage with no snap or rushers.
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, the son of longtime college football coach Jack Harbaugh, didn't hesitate to send Dicker on to the field to try the leisurely kick.
And without having to deal with the timing of a snap and hold, or fear of hard-charging opponents seeking to block the kick, Dicker knocked it through the uprights, cutting Denver's lead to 21-13.
Jim Harbaugh said he was well aware of the obscure rule and said he's regularly thinking of ways to take advantage it.
“It’s my favorite rule in football,” the smiling coach told reporters after the game. “Just trying to get one of those in every game.”
Harbaugh clearly knows this rare rule as he tried to use it to score in 2013 when he was coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He sent Phil Dawson onto the field for an unsuccessful 71-yard attempt against the then-St. Louis Rams on Sept. 26, 2013.
This peculiar rule can benefit offense in just one very narrow circumstance: When the other team is punting from deep in its own end, the receiving team catches it in field-goal range and there's no time to run multiple plays.
The Chargers Thursday night probably wouldn't have tried the free kick without benefit of the 15-yard penalty for fair catch interference.
"As soon as they (referees) called that penalty and moved it closer, I'm going, 'Hey they're going to make it (kick the unusual field goal)," Wersching said.
The long-retired kicker admitted on Friday he didn't know this rule when his coach Tommy Prothro used it against O.J. Simpson's Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., that day 48 years ago.
"I remember him (coach) telling the punt returner, 'Whatever you do, call the fair catch. Do not advance it,'" said Wersching, a two-time Super Bowl winner with the San Francisco 49ers who is best known for his odd habit of not looking up goal posts when he attempted kicks.
"Luckily, the Buffalo punter (Marv Bateman) didn't kick it very far (31 yards) and he (returner Mike Williams) caught the fair catch. And then all of a sudden he (Prothro) called for a free kick and I'm going, 'What's that?' No one knew why, except for him. They (coaches) then explained what we had to do and I said, 'Oh, it's cool, OK' and everything was successful."
