Coming off of his first Pro Bowl season, Billy Cundiff looks fresh and strong. The Ravens kicker has nailed field goals of 58 and 59 yards in training camp thus far, and the 31-year-old Cundiff credits his offseason regimen for his length this summer.
"I definitely feel like my leg is stronger than it's ever been," he said Saturday after the team's practice at M&T Bank Stadium. "It's a different situation. I'm feeling more comfortable here. For the first time in my career, I've had the same snapper and holder. Just in everything, there's more continuity from last season. So in the offseason, I really made it a point to really work on my strength in the weight room, and I was doing stuff on the field that was non-kicking related to really try to make myself as explosive as I possibly could be."
Cundiff's 58-yarder occurred Saturday, and the ball cleared the field goal posts with several more yards to spare. He made the kick despite pleas from the coaching staff and WBAL Radio broadcast team to intensify crowd noise.Cundiff, who had made 23 consecutive field goals before missing a 45-yarder on Tuesday, said he appreciated the attempt to replicate crowd conditions during the regular season in hostile environments.
"In the preseason, it's hard to simulate how a regular-season game is," he said. "But for this situation, it's as close as you can get to a game for us right now. It's much more realistic than being out on a field in Owings Mills. For me, I thought it was a great chance for us to continue develop some rhythm and timing with Pat [Patrick Scales] as our long snapper. We're still waiting for Morgan to get back. So it was a good chance for Pat to get some experience."
Coach John Harbaugh marveled at Cundiff's performance even as the team waits for long snapper Morgan Cox [anterior cruciate ligament surgery] to be activated off of the physically-unable-to-perform list.
"He did great," Harbaugh said of Cundiff. "He's working with a new snapper. I don't know if you guys realize that, but Morgan has the knee. So they've kind of been working on timing a little bit, and it's been getting steadily better."
