What happened on Will Reichard's field goal that fell short in LA?

It was a bit shocking to see Vikings kicker Will Reichard miss a field goal due to a lack of distance during Thursday night's mess of a loss to the Chargers, but there's a logical explanation for what went wrong on the kick.

As time ticked down on the first half, with the Vikings trailing 21-3, their offense tried to get into position to set Reichard up for a field goal. A couple sacks forced Minnesota to burn its second and third timeouts. Then, on 3rd and 18, Carson Wentz hit Justin Jefferson for 17 yards down to the LA 35-yard-line.

Had the Vikings gotten the first down, they could've run up and spiked the ball to give Reichard plenty of time for a normal attempt. But it was fourth down, so they had to execute the "fire drill" play where the offense heads to the sideline and the field goal unit runs out and gets the kick off before time expires.

Everything seemed to be executed perfectly. Reichard didn't have to rush, and his kick was clearly on line. It just didn't get there. The kick fell short of the crossbar, and the Vikings went into the half still trailing by 18 points.

What made it odd to witness is that Reichard has proven to have plenty of power in his leg. He came into this game 13 for 17 for his career in attempts from 50-plus yards, with makes this season from 59, 62, and 59 yards. Those kicks all had distance to spare.

So, what happened? Two factors appear to have caused the miss. One is that Reichard, as he swung his right leg at the ball, appeared to graze the turf with his foot before making contact. Kirk Herbstreit called it out right away on the Prime Video broadcast, comparing it to a golf swing that hits the grass first. The replay backs up that theory, as you can see turf pellets pop up after contact. From a physics standpoint, that would slow down Reichard's leg just a bit at the point of contact with the ball.