Borregales hasn’t quite reached legendary status, but after the last few weeks, any kicker who can consistently deliver like Borregales did Sunday deserves to be celebrated.
“I mean, to go clean sheet, it’s pretty good for your first time out,” Baringer said of Borregales’s perfect postseason debut, which included going 3-for-3 on field goals and an extra point in a 16-3 wild-card win over the Chargers. “It wasn’t easy. It was blowing a little bit, especially in the second half, when we kind of needed that field goal, and then that extra point at the end.”
It’s been a tough few weeks to be an NFL kicker. Baltimore’s Tyler Loop missed a field goal in the regular-season finale that denied the Ravens a shot at the playoffs. Green Bay’s Brandon McManus’s struggles played a role in Green Bay’s shocking wild-card loss to Chicago. And Philadelphia’s Jake Elliott and San Francisco’s Eddie Piñeiro each missed an extra point Sunday afternoon.
Borregales had no such issues. On a chilly and windy night, the guy critics had derided as a warm-weather kicker after some early-season inconsistency was straight and true. He delivered a pair of second-quarter field goals — one from 23 yards and the other from 35 — to push New England out to a 6-3 lead. He added a third-quarter field goal from 39 yards to make it 9-3, and an extra point in the fourth quarter put the capper on a perfect evening.
In an occasionally sloppy affair that featured lots of counterpunching between two relatively even teams, it was New England’s special teams that showed it was capable of being a difference-maker in this postseason. Borregales was perfect. The punt and kick coverage was sharp. Baringer dropped two of his three punts inside the 20-yard line, and Marcus Jones’s shrewd decision-making when it came to working as a punt returner also played a sizable role when it came to field position.
“I thought it was solid,” coach Mike Vrabel said of the special teams work against the Chargers. “We didn’t have a lot of opportunities. I thought Marcus handled the punts extremely well. I thought the decision to let the ball bounce and get a touchback, those are big decisions that we trust Marcus in to come up and catch the punts.
“I thought it was a very clean game from our special teams perspective. They set the table for everything that we do offensively and defensively.”
As for Borregales, he said he was unaware of the struggles of some of the other kickers over the last few weeks, and that there were no nerves in his postseason debut.
“Not really. It’s more excitement really at this point,” he said. “Really just excited to get out there and just do my job really. I do it for everyone in this locker room and all the coaches and everything. Just going out there excited, kind of just in my head, knowing that the kick is going to go through the uprights.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I’m just focused on me. Allowing the Lord to do his work through me,” Borregales added. “He gave me these skills for a reason, and I’m using them in the way he wants me to, and that’s just going out there and letting him take control and praising Him after.”
Borregales was asked about dealing with the cold and wind.
“That’s not a controllable,” he said. “I really just go out there and do what I can do and just make my kicks and do my job.
“It doesn’t matter about the weather,” he said. “Cold weather, windy. It’s just like any other game. Just got to go out there and just prepare for it.”
The legacy of New England’s special teams heroics, especially when it comes to the postseason, is familiar ground. It’s one Borregales — who was three weeks old when Adam Vinatieri delivered the legendary game-winner to beat the Raiders in 2002 — is eager to be a part of. He said the best way he can make that happen is to forget about what happened Sunday night and focus on the divisional round, set for next Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
“You’ve just got to just turn the page. Good or bad, you got to turn the page,” Borregales said. “And that’s what we’re going to do this week.”