The first field goal of Super Bowl LVIII was a big one and that's because Jake Moody broke the Super Bowl record for longest field goal, a mark that had stood for 30 years.
Moody got the chance to break the record in the second quarter after a 49ers drive stalled at Kansas City's 37-yard line. With the 49ers facing a fourth-and-14, Kyle Shanahan made the bold decision to kick the field goal and Moody made the gamble pay off by nailing the kick.
Moody's field goal gave the 49ers an early 3-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Moody, he didn't get to hold the record for very long and that's because Harrison Butker ended up breaking Moody's record in the third quarter when he drilled a 57-yard field goal.
The kick by Moody broke a record that had been previously held by Buffalo's Steve Christie, who hit a 54-yarder in a Super Bowl XXVIII loss to the Dallas Cowboys.Since Christie's kick, no one had ever really even challenged the record. Over the past 30 years, there had only even been ONE field goal attempt of 54 yards or more before Moody and Butker came along on Sunday (Seahawks kicker Josh Brown missed a 54-yard attempt in Super Bowl XL).
Although Moody lost the distance record, he did pick up a Super Bowl record when he hit an absolutely clutch 53-yard field goal with under two minutes left to play. That kick made him the first player in Super Bowl history to make multiple field goals of 50 yards or more in the same game.
Going into Sunday, all kickers in NFL history had combined to hit just 46.7% of their field goals in the Super Bowl from 50 yards or longer. However, Moody and Butker are now 3-for-3 on kicks of 50 or more.
For Moody, the kick should give him some serious confidence going forward, especially after his recent struggles, which included at least one missed kick in his past three games. Now that Moody has made a long one, Shanahan almost certainly won't hesitate to use him going forward.
Moody now continues a wild trend for rookie kickers in the Super Bowl: They somehow have a lot of success no matter how good or bad they were during the regular season.
In the end, however, it was the Chiefs who prevailed 25-22 in OT for their second straight Super Bowl win and third in four years.