PLAY OF THE DAY

The media mob around McPherson’s locker would suggest his walk-off 52-yard field goal ended the Bengals’ upcoming Thanksgiving Night game in Baltimore rather than Friday’s third practice of training camp.

But with McPherson looking to re-capture his rookie magic as he begins his fifth season and head coach Zac Taylor looking to bring his team closer together in time for September, well, the media went where the story lurked.

It seems that Taylor, forever the cul-de-sac commissioner who made up every game imaginable growing up in Norman, Okla., is at it again. He’s come up with a series of daily competitions in training camp, and right now the offense leads the defense, 3-1, after McPherson drilled it through with his trusty, re-discovered fade to end practice.

Before the kick, Taylor called them up, told them McPherson declared himself with the offense, and if he missed the defense would get a point, and it would be tied at 2. As towels swirled and the defense hooted, he made it 3-1, instead.

“It just felt good to see it go through,” said McPherson, who didn’t put enough through last year with a career-low 72.7 field-goal percentage. “It gets you excited to come in every day starting with a competition. I’m part of the offense. So, I kick off more than hit field goals or PATs. Just barely. But I’m part of the offense.

“That’s been a big emphasis, too. He put in bigger pressure moments in practice so when it comes to games, been there, done that.”

Here is McPherson, one of the most popular players in Bengals history with his laundry list of handkerchief kicks that wiped away tears of joy: Walk-off field goals to win the division and AFC. Not to mention winning a Ring of Honor game at the gun, as well as a Monday night slugfest in Jacksonville. 19-for-19 in the postseason.

And yet he’s looking for a bounce-back season after last year’s misfortune ended with a groin injury that wiped out his last five games.

It will be recalled he did have a 53-yard try next door against Baltimore last year that would have ended the game in overtime. But a mishandled snap led to a miss. A few weeks later in Los Angeles, he had fourth-quarter misses of 48 and 51 in a tie game the Chargers pulled out with a late touchdown.

But three days here, the ball is going straight. No misses in 11 tries this camp as he gets back to kicking the way he grew up. He’s going back to his slight fade, and on Friday, with a stubborn right-to-left wind staring at him, he just did what had been natural up until the last few years and let the fade ride the breeze.

“I feel a lot more comfortable. My word for myself for this camp is just commit,” McPherson said. “Less thoughts running through the mind right now for me.”

What he’s committed to is the stance and mentality he had kicking at Fort Payne High School in Alabama, at the University of Floria in college, and at the 2021 pro day in Gainesville where Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons was convinced to draft him.

“My second and third seasons, I focused more on hitting it straight. I’ve been like a draw-er of the football. A little right to left movement,” McPherson said. “I always thought in the NFL you had to be more clean. End over end. Fly it straight because it gets pretty windy. This year I’m back to how I grew up kicking.”

That meant, basically, closing up his stance again and attacking the holder more from the side. He had been working on straightening his plant foot, but in the spring workouts he twisted the ankle on a freak move during a kickoff. He still kicked with it, but in the 40 days leading up to camp, he worked on strengthening and mobility issues.

Now, it looks like he’s back. Just quote Gracie McPherson, his toddler daughter. He’s got several pictures of her in his locker with encouraging quotes in bubbles from her. Like, “This one is really good.”

Print it. Her dad’s 52-yarder on Friday was all that.