NFL kickers struggled to make clutch kicks in Week 1
The one common trend across the NFL in Week 1 of the 2022 season was the number of missed clutch kicks with the game on the line.
The misses even came from normally reliable kickers.
In Cincinnati, Evan MacPherson had a potential game-winning extra point blocked, before missing a chip-shot field goal in overtime. In that same game, Pittsburgh's Chris Boswell had a 55-yard kick doink off the upright before later making a 53-yard kick to win the game.
Tennessee's Randy Bullock, Indianapolis' Rodrigo Blankenship, Atlanta's Younghoe Koo, and Denver's Brandon McManus also missed potential game-winning kicks late in games.
In total, there were six missed field goals in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime that would have either been tying kicks or game-winning kicks, as well as McPherson's blocked extra point.
According to the Athletic's Mike Sando, that is the most missed clutch kicks in a single week in more than 20 years.
It was a pretty stunning storyline to watch develop in real time because kickers today are better than they have ever been at any point in the history of the league. They are more accurate than ever before, have more range than ever before, and it has reached the point where any miss inside of 40 or 45 yards seems shocking.
So what happened in the first week of the season?
Sando talked to long-time NFL special teams coach Mike Westhoff, who theorized that it has something to do with the lack of pressure kicks in training camp and the preseason, and how dramatically it all changes when the real games start.
From The Athletic:
“Here is the problem as I see it,” Westhoff said. “The way the game has changed, we have a preseason right now where there is almost no pressure involved. The practices are cut way down. How many times has a kicker really done a full-speed, all-out, somebody-coming-after-you rep? They just don’t have any. So, all of a sudden, it is opening day and you have a few of these. Well, how much preparation have you had?”
A sound theory, but there were a couple of other factors at play in some of those situations, including replacement specialists and some long kicks.
When it comes to the latter point, the missed kicks by Koo and McManus were 63 and 64 yards respectively. In any situation, the odds are against the kicker in making those kicks, and McManus' kick was especially crazy given that Denver still had more than a minute to play and was facing a fourth-and-five with Russell Wilson as its quarterback.
With McPherson and the Bengals, they had an issue with the former point: A backup long snapper, which no doubt played some role in the missed overtime kick due to a high snap.
In the end, it was a lot of factors all merging to create a tough week for kickers.
More must-reads: