As the Cincinnati Bengals continue their historic playoff run to the Super Bowl, placekicker Evan McPherson has been a big topic of conversation. The rookie has made new fans all season long, including Bengals legend Jim Breech.
Breech played for Cincinnati for 13 of his 14 NFL seasons and secured the franchise scoring record in the process, scoring 1,151 points. He played in two Super Bowl games with Cincinnati.
“It’s why you play the game, to get to the Super Bowl and also to win the Super Bowl, which we were unable to do,” Breech said.
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During the 1988-89 season, the last time the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl, Breech said the team’s saying that year was “Finish Everything.” He told News Center’s 7 Cheryl McHenry that the quote was even engraved in the team’s AFC Championship rings from that year. Its a sentiment that he said he hopes this year’s team keeps in mind.
“I’d like to see them finish everything,” Breech said.
He told News Center 7 that this year’s team has brought the city and the region “alive” and McPherson is one of the players electrifying Bengals fans across the country. Breech said he is one of the rookie’s biggest fans and went as far as to call McPherson his hero.
“He blows me away. His distance, I never had the distance he has. It’s amazing,” Breech said.
Breech said his career-long was 53 yards and said McPherson could do that “in his sleep.” He went as far as to say McPherson was the closest kicker in the league to Justin Tucker, of the Baltimore Ravens.
“And that says a lot because I think Justin Tucker is the best kicker that’s ever kicked in the NFL,” he said.
While he has not been able to meet McPherson yet, he said the two text.
When asked about what advice he would give McPherson ahead of the biggest game of his young career, Breech thought back to advice he received from Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud, who told him that as the game goes on and there is a big kick, everything speeds up.
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“But keep your composer and do the thing you’ve been doing every week,” Breech said.
Breech said he predicts that the Bengals will beat the Los Angeles Rams 23-20.
“Might come down to an Evan McPherson field goal and I have no doubt in my mind, he’ll drill it,” Breech said.
He also said he believes McPherson will pass his all-time scoring record in Cincinnati.
“[He’ll] blow by that probably around his ninth year,” he said.
The Bengals and Rams will face off in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, February 13.
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