Robbie Gould hasn’t played a lot of games in Lambeau Field under the conditions he’ll see Saturday night, so he spent this week gathering as much research as he could.
Part of that involves wearing scuba gear to at least partially insulate him from temperatures expected to be in the low 20s at kickoff. Then it will get colder.
The last time the 49ers played in the postseason at Lambeau, it came down to a 33-yard field goal attempt by Phil Dawson following the 2013 season in the wild card round. Dawson made it and the 49ers won 23-20.
Gould, 39, played 11 seasons for the Chicago Bears in the NFC North and then one for the New York Giants before joining the 49ers in 2017, so he’s well acquainted with the cold and will be playing his 14th game at Lambeau Field.
In a wild card playoff loss with the Giants in 14-degree temperatures and 17 miles per hour wind following the 2016 season, Gould converted the only two field goals he attempted from distances of 26 and 40 yards.
“I wore a scuba suit on the top half of my body, tried to work on whether I was going to wear thick tights or not at practice,” Gould said Thursday before the 49ers left for Green Bay. “I’m pretty familiar with what I think I’m going to wear. I’m pretty comfortable there.”
Gould has been nearly automatic at Lambeau, converting 20 of 21 field-goal attempts and all 21 of his point-after tries for his career.
The only games that came with the infamous Green Bay winter conditions were the Giants game in which he kicked two field goals, and on Christmas Day in 2011. In that game, Gould was 2-for-3 in field goal attempts in 37-degree temperatures with a 29-degree wind chill. His lone miss that day in Lambeau was on a 49-yard attempt.
So Gould did some research this week with his place-kicking fraternity. He talked with Greg Joseph, who kicked a 51-yard field goal for Minnesota in Week 17 on an 11-degree day with minus-1 wind chill.
Gould also reached out to Lawrence Tynes, who kicked three field goals (and missed two) when the temperature was minus-1 and the wind chill minus-23 when the Giants eliminated the Packers from the playoffs following the 2007 season.
Robbie Gould’s first punt since 2007 is downed inside the 20 🔥
📺: #SFvsLAR on FOX
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/ErqR7jrwsD— NFL (@NFL) January 9, 2022
“I talked to Greg about the field, just to get a feel for what it looks like, what it might feel like, how the footing is going to be,” Gould said. “I talked to Lawrence about what he remembered about the warmup, about the game weather-wise and different ways to prepare, know that it’s probably going to be below zero.”
Gould validated the 49ers’ faith in him after missing time with a groin injury by coming up huge late in the season. His field goals against Dallas came from distances of 53, 40 and 52 yards. Gould doesn’t distract easily. Before the game, he nearly got run over by service members folding out a giant American flag and then during warmups Cowboys cheerleaders were on the field in a scene reminiscent of a PGA golfer teeing off with fans on both sides.
“It was an interesting start to the day,” Gould said.
In a Week 18 game that put the 49ers into the playoffs on the road against Los Angeles, Gould kicked the game-winning 24-yard field goal in overtime and had punts of 47 and 43 yards that were not returned after Mitch Wishnowsky left with a concussion.
“Robbie is just such a consummate pro,” 49ers special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “To be so locked in, I could have told you what he was going to do in the L.A. game by the way he looked at us the night before the game and the way he was all week.”
Having kicked in Chicago for 11 years, Gould knows what he’s up against even if his late-December and January games at Lambeau have been limited.
“The ball isn’t going to expand on your foot like it normally would,” Gould said. “It’s going to be heavier. The key for games like this is to make sure in pregame warmup you’ve got the right gloves, the right footing. You get a feel for how the ball is traveling, then come up with a game plan.”
And then?
“It’s definitely going to hurt. I’ll probably have black and blue marks for a couple of days,” Gould said. “But I played in Chicago for 11 years and a year in New York. You either embrace it or let it bother you and I think a lot of guys in the locker room are embracing what’s ahead of us.”
