ARIZONA CARDINALS
Cardinals’ Matt Prater wins player of the week for Cowboys performance
Arizona Cardinals kicker Matt Prater (5) kicks a field goal against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)
Arizona Cardinals kicker Matt Prater became the seventh on his team to win an NFC Player of the Week honor after scoring 13 points in a 25-22 win against the Dallas Cowboys. The league named him NFC Special Teams Player of the Week on Wednesday.
Prater hit four field goals of 24, 53, 26 and 38 yards while also drilling an extra point on Sunday.
He becomes the first Arizona player to win the special teams award twice since kicker Chandler Catanzaro did so in 2014. Prater won it the first time in Week 6 for his performance in a road win against the Cleveland Browns.
Individually, it’s Prater’s 14th such weekly honor, which is five behind the record held by retired kicker Adam Vinatieri.
With Prater’s 13 points scored against the Cowboys, he has 125 points in a season, the fifth-highest in a year for any past Cardinal. He’s scored more in a 16-game regular season only three times over his career in 2012, 2013 and 2017.
For the season, Prater has hit 27 of 34 field goals (79%), matching a career-high with seven makes beyond 50 yards. He has a long of 62 yards, two shy of his record mark of 64 recorded in 2013 with the Denver Broncos.
Other weekly NFL award winners for the Cardinals this season goes as follows: OLB Chandler Jones (Week 11 at Seattle, Week 1 at Tennessee), ILB Jordan Hicks (Week 13 at Chicago), CB Byron Murphy (Week 3 at Jacksonville) and QB Kyler Murray (Week 2 vs. Minnesota).
