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 When the NFL implemented a rule change in advance of this season
that added 13 additional yards to an extra point attempt, it vowed
to add excitement to a routine act.
What the league may not have anticipated is that kickers would so
routinely crack under the added pressure of a 33-yard boot.
Entering Week Four of play, a total of 13 extra point attempts had
already been missed, which was four more misfires than all of last
year.
The trend of inaccuracy has seemingly crept into field goals as well
and players are paying the price for their wayward kicks.
Just this past week, the Houston Texans cut kicker Randy Bullock
while the Pittsburgh Steelers sent Josh Scobee packing following his
dreadful performance in the team's 23-20 overtime loss to Baltimore
on Thursday.
Scobee set the tone for a wayward NFL week when he missed a pair of
field goals in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter that
led to the Steelers' demise.
Sunday's action followed suit as several games were decided by
errant kicks.
New Orleans nearly had their first victory of the campaign snatched
away when kicker Zach Hocker hit the upright on a potential
game-winner in the final seconds, but the Saints recovered to beat
Dallas 26-20 in overtime.
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Philadelphia's Caleb Sturgis, who was recently signed to fill in for
injured starter Cody Parkey, was off on a 33-yard field goal as well
as an extra point which proved the difference the Eagles' 23-20
defeat to Washington. Jacksonville's Jason Myers missed a 53-yarder
as time expired in regulation, then was off on a 48-yard boot in
overtime of the Jaguars' 16-13 loss to Indianapolis.
"I didn't do my part today," Myers told reporters. "I didn't have a
great first game of the season. I came back the next week (and did
well).
"I have to do my part next time."
Myers, like many of the NFL's struggling kickers, can only hope
there is a next time.
(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Sudipto
Ganguly)
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