KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Evan McPherson kept to himself as he jogged onto the field in overtime at Arrowhead Stadium, saying nothing to his Cincinnati Bengals teammates.
The 22-year-old rookie kicker didn't need to. They all knew what he was thinking with the season on the line.
"It was going through my head," McPherson said, "that there was a good chance we were going to the Super Bowl."
And that's exactly where they're heading.
McPherson kicked a 31-yard field goal for a 27-24 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's AFC championship game, sending the Bengals to the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years.
"It's just so surreal that this game came down to a field goal," said McPherson, a native of Fort Payne, Alabama.
Then again, it might have been absolutely fitting.
After all, McPherson is a major reason the Bengals are here. He's 12-for-12 on his postseason field-goal tries, three makes from breaking Adam Vinatieri's record for one NFL postseason. He'll get that chance on Feb. 13 in Inglewood, California, when Cincinnati faces the Los Angeles Rams - who beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in the NFC title game - at their own SoFi Stadium in Super Bowl LVI.
"That's definitely something we're going to shoot for," McPherson said. "I mean, we'll see how it goes. I'd like to score a lot of touchdowns in the Super Bowl. But however we can get points in the Super Bowl, we'll do."
AP photo by Charlie Riedel / Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson (2) celebrates after making a 31-yard field goal for a 27-24 overtime victory against the host Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's AFC championship game.And he's giving his coaches, teammates and fans all the confidence he'll make any kick that comes his way.
From any distance. On any field.
McPherson helped the fourth-seeded Bengals erase an 18-point deficit - tying an AFC title game record for largest comeback - to take a late 24-21 lead over the second-seeded Chiefs on his 52-yard field goal. The weekend before, his 52-yarder as time ran out - his fourth field goal of the game - gave Cincinnati a 19-16 victory over the top-seeded Tennessee Titans in a divisional round matchup in Nashville.
"He has ice in his veins," Bengals coach Zac Taylor said after that win.
It has all made McPherson a bit of a sudden celebrity with nicknames such as "Shooter" and "Money Mac" bestowed on him as he keeps making clutch field goals and the Bengals keep winning - and erasing the old "Bungles" moniker that had been stuck to the franchise for more than three decades.
"This whole week's been awesome," McPherson said. "It's been, you know, surreal just all the attention me and the team have gotten. It's been coming this whole year. I think we've kind of pushed that underdog narrative to the side, showing everybody that the Bengals are here to stay.
"We mean business, and whoever you put out there on the field against us we're going to compete and do the best we can."
That includes McPherson, whose journey to the Super Bowl spotlight began on the high school football fields of Alabama, where he became the country's top prep kicker. In 2018, he set a state record with his 60-yarder that caught the attention of college scouts - and put him on the radar of NFL teams.
AP file photo by Emilee Chinn / Cincinnati Bengals rookie Evan McPherson starred at Alabama's Fort Payne High School and the University of Florida before being selected in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL draft, when he was the only kicker taken.He went to the University of Florida and made 51 of his 60 field-goal attempts, going 5-for-8 from 50 yards or longer. McPherson also connected on all but one of his 150 extra-point tries.
He opted to make himself eligible for the NFL draft after his junior season, and the Bengals raised many eyebrows when they selected him in the fifth round last April. He was the only kicker drafted.
Well, now he's booting the Bengals to the Super Bowl.
"I think a lot of people probably wrote us off at halftime, but we were a confident bunch of guys and we knew that there was no way we were going out like this," McPherson said. "We knew 100% we were going to come back and give them a run for their money."