ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Just a few moments into early Monday morning, new Bills kicker Matt Prater climbed the three steps up to his postgame news conference.
"I was not expecting this," Prater said with a laugh, acknowledging just how uncanny and wild his week had been.
To begin to understand the tale, you have to hit the rewind button to a moment that perfectly encapsulated the kicker's whirlwind journey.
Prater walked into the Bills' locker room on Friday after practice, all turned around.
He had just finished with his first full session kicking inside Highmark Stadium. Prater took a wrong turn into a different cavern of the changing room, not sure where he was going.
Punter Brad Robbins was Johnny on the spot. He saw Prater struggling and quickly ran to the middle of the locker room. He yelled out, "Matt!" to get Prater's attention, and used both arms to direct the new Bills kicker to his actual locker. Mind you, this was a full day after Prater had first arrived in Buffalo -- technically his second day under contract.
It's hard to blame Prater for his zombie-like state, though. After all, he arrived in Buffalo on a red-eye from Arizona on Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m.
From there, the Bills whisked him away to his physicals, then to their home base in Orchard Park. Prater signed on to the Bills' practice squad that morning and took in the Thursday fieldhouse practice as much as he could.
When the team announced the signing, many on social media said something along the lines of, 'Wait, that Matt Prater?!' Yes, that Matt Prater -- the very same.
The 41-year-old kicker, now in his 19th NFL season, went from writing up practice on Wednesday for a 9-to-11-year-old football league that his son played on, to being a key cog in the latest chapter of the longstanding Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson rivalry.
"Matt was a rookie when I was eight years old," the 26-year-old Robbins was quick to point out, saying he grew up watching the kicker. For reference, Prater is six years older than Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Prater was a seven-year veteran of the NFL when Allen graduated high school. The kicker is the oldest veteran to play for the Bills in their franchise history.
"We had some crazy years in Denver with Tebow," Prater referenced. Tim Tebow's last year with the Broncos was in 2011.
No matter his age, the Bills needed Prater desperately.
The team shut down its top kicker, Tyler Bass, putting him on injured reserve on Friday due to a left hip and groin injury. That meant it was Prater's Bills debut -- against one of the best teams in the NFL, in front of a national audience in primetime, no less.
Roughly 89 hours after landing in Buffalo, there Prater was knocking the game-winning, walk-off 32-yard field goal through the uprights to beat the Baltimore Ravens 41-40 in what could be the NFL's game of the year.
"He said today was the day he felt like he woke up and actually felt like a human after that red eye," Robbins said after the game. "He was like, I actually feel pretty good today."
Prater's kick capped off a furious Bills comeback in which they trailed the Ravens by 15 points in the fourth quarter on two occasions. He hadn't kicked for a team since Sept. 22 of last season, before being put on IR with left knee soreness by the Arizona Cardinals. He holds the NFL record with 81 field goals of 50 yards or longer and owns the league's third-longest field goal at 64 yards, trailing Justin Tucker (66) and Brandon Aubrey (65).
Coming into the game, he had been nearly perfect in lead-changing, late-game situations. Lifetime, Prater was 23-of-24 on those attempts that happened in the last two minutes of regulation or in overtime.
Make it 24-of-25, a cool 96 percent success rate, much to the Bills' delight.
"I'm still on cloud nine," Prater said after the game.
"Honestly, nothing short of incredible," long snapper Reid Ferguson said of the moment.
"That was like almost a dream come true to be like, yeah, I get a game-winning, mayday field goal situation where I get to hold for one of the G.O.A.T.s of kicking, (it) was pretty surreal," Robbins added.
But before Prater became one of the unlikeliest heroes of Bills lore, destined to be referenced for decades in one of the most memorable games in the history of what's soon to be the old Highmark Stadium, his teammates had a sneaky feeling.
"His first practice on Friday, we got some kicks down here in the stadium, and I was like, I don't know, I'm feeling a game winner on Sunday," Ferguson said. "And they all heard me."
"We talked about it probably three or four times throughout the week," Robbins said. "I looked over at Reid with like six minutes left and was like, it could happen."
Once Prater's now-illustrious game-winning kick sailed through the uprights, Ferguson jubilantly reminded everyone of his late-week prognostication.
"After the game, I was like, 'I told you so!'"
Even before the big moment, Robbins -- a huge Prater fan from childhood -- begged the Bills' head of equipment for a favor.
"As soon as I found out he was here, I was like, 'Hey, I don't care what it takes, but can you make me a jersey? I'll buy it off ya.' I can have Prater sign it," Robbins said. "A Prater Bills jersey is going to be like a rarity. It'll be pretty sweet."
Should this season progress in spectacular fashion for the Bills, Robbins may not be the only one in Buffalo sporting a custom No. 15 Prater Bills jersey before long.
Although the team wasn't at its best on Sunday night, it turned around what seemed like a sure loss midway through the fourth quarter into a win that everyone in the country is talking about.
"This one will be one of those stories that are told for a long time," Bills head coach Sean McDermott said. "I'm sure people are gonna wake up, some Buffalonians maybe, and maybe people just around the country, and will be like, 'Wait, did that happen?'"
Though none of it would have been possible without the play of their franchise leader.
The Bills led off the Ravens game with a statement drive, finishing off a seven-play series with a touchdown. But after that moment, the Bills hit a massive lull. The downfield passing attack just wasn't working, as the Bills often settled for underneath throws to try to generate some yards after the catch to help move down the field. It didn't work. One stalled drive after another resulted in not only surrendering the lead to the Ravens but also allowing Baltimore to pad its lead throughout the evening. The Ravens held a two-touchdown advantage on three occasions.
The Bills had only 19 points to their names entering the fourth quarter, and then, Allen showed the NFL why he is, quite possibly, the best quarterback in the world. Seemingly unshackled from what had been holding the Bills' passing offense back previously, with the Bills down 34-19 at the end of the third quarter, Allen was practically perfect from that point forward.
He completed 17-of-22 passes for 259 yards from that drive through the end of the game. Jackson had only 209 passing yards the entire game. Two of the incompletions were drops, and another was the result of receiver Joshua Palmer seemingly stopping on a route that almost became a turnover. Palmer made up for it with the key 32-yard gain to help setup the game-winning kick from Prater.
Allen also added in some extra scrambles and runs that put the Bills in position to win the game. Allen averaging 11.8 yards per pass attempt over those five drives is a legendary performance, and one that won't soon be forgotten -- especially if this victory helps earn the Bills a tiebreaker in AFC seeding for critical playoff games.
As long as Allen is playing this way, anything is possible for the Bills. But they may need him to continue playing this way for a while, given the state of their defense at the moment. With so many questions about that side of the ball, particularly in the secondary, the Bills may need to resort to being a bit of a shootout team for the here and now.
Through his history with the Bills, McDermott has always seemingly found a way to put a bandage over the worst part of the defense, and he has his work cut out for him this year. But with Allen giving them the best quarterback performance of Week 1 in the NFL -- an all-in 424-yard, four-touchdown showing without a single turnover -- and no signs of him slowing down, the Bills should remain firmly atop the list of Super Bowl contenders this season.