How many, he doesn’t know. Things like that slip your mind when you’re in a seven-hour game and trying like crazy to stay awake and engaged. Really, Bitancurt’s job is a little come-and-go as it is. Now mix in more than four hours of delays. Concentration and give-a-damn can disappear. The junior placekicker nevertheless persevered. He stayed off his feet. When he wasn’t sitting, he was laying on his back with his feet elevated. Keep in mind, he went through three warmups and each features a pretty specific routine and a number of kicks.

On a normal game day, he’ll kick about 100 times before the game, after halftime, on the sideline and then when called upon to score points. Multiply that for Sunday. Now consider Bitancurt — who was 2-for-2 on FGs and 4-for-4 PATs and made a lot of worried fans feel well again — had a long day and a late night, a short week and a lot of kicks in the first week of the season. Maybe you worry. Maybe you hope he backs it off a little this week, just to keep that thing fresh. You can only swing the gate so many times before it squeaks, right? Wrong.

“Probably not,” said Bitancurt, who made two field goal tries and four extra point attempts. “I’m feeling pretty good. I did kick a lot more balls, but I feel like my body is in better shape now. I feel like I’ll treat this week as if it’s a normal Saturday game.”