Take yesterday. He kicked four field goals in the Eagles' 40-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers, including a 38-yarder that put them ahead to stay in the middle of the fourth quarter. That he might be the first kicker in NFL history to have had one of his field goals challenged by the opposing coach and upheld after a replay review was interesting - but that really wasn't the half of it.
The half. It is where we begin, then, with a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown. If the 3-3 Eagles get this thing turned around, it will be remembered as the start of the sequence that nearly killed and ultimately saved their season.
And Akers was in the middle of that, too.
"It feels unbelievable," he said, about the whole crazy day. "I'm just going to keep swinging the best that I can. People made fun of my joke when I said I'm a blessed man and the sun is going to come up tomorrow. Today is my daughter's fourth birthday and I'm missing it out here. I feel that I'm going to keep working at it.
"It feels good today, to win the way we did. It showed a lot of character on the team, to keep battling. That was a huge momentum switch."
To the half, then. To the last play of the half. The Eagles were holding a 17-9 lead and had maneuvered the ball downfield and put Akers in a position to try a 54-yard field goal at the gun.
It seemed an ideal attempt for a kicker struggling to make long kicks. It was long enough to be makable but still so long that nobody really had any great expectations. If Akers missed, it would have been no big deal. If he succeeded, maybe it would be salve for whatever has been ailing him.
"I felt like I was going to drill it," he said. "I made it from 64 [yards] in warm-ups that way. I felt like I really struck the ball well - I mean, I had a lot of power to it."
