HawkAroundTheClock":2niox534 said:
Agreed. Great play by Sherm. And he came a hair's width away from blocking a field goal too.
No way to know for sure whether that affected the final FG attempt, but I wouldn't be surprised if that near-block occupied a tiny spot in Walsh's subconscious.
Almost certainly did. In that article by a former college kicker:
http://insidethepylon.com/film-study/fi ... ield-goal/
He goes into great detail about what went wrong on the kick. Probably the most important thing is that Walsh planted his foot almost 50% closer than he normally does. This is not mentioned in the article, but it's likely he rushed his approach due to fear of Sherman, leading to him covering slightly more ground than usual.
Another factor was that the holder didn't want to risk turning the ball with cold weather gloves on. So Minnesota got a big advantage from the cold weather--the fact they were in the game at all--but ultimately was hoist on its own petard.
But anyway, Sherman probably won us that game. Clutch player.
