Yes, the kicking was bad in the NFL this weekend. And it’s early yet, with one game left to play.
But it’s not the historical, hysterical collapse some are making it out to be.
According to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com, the last time the NFL saw a weekend with this many field goal misses was only six weeks ago — Week 15 of 2014. While winter weather could easily be blamed for part of that, Week Two in 2013 also featured 14 missed field goals.
League-wide, kickers are making field goals at a 84.9 percent rate this season, compared to 84.7 percent in 2014 and 82.4 in 2013.
The big difference is the number of short misses, including four extra points, which have been made something other than automatic by moving them to the 15 (i.e. a 33-yarder). Over the past three seasons (including the first three weeks of this season), the league-wide rate on kicks under 40 yards was 80.6 percent. This week, it was 68.2, with kickers hitting 15 of 22.
Those extra points tend to get lumped in with the field goal misses when it comes to spotting a trend, as seeing 18 missed kicks seems more alarming.
But in Week 10 of 2011, there were 20 misses, so it has been worse, and not all the way back in the leather-helmet era.
Kickers have extra stuff to worry about now, and perhaps that worry contributes to their performance. Or maybe it was just a set of random occurrences.
Either way, there may not be cause for a full-blown panic yet. Besides, there are probably still more qualified NFL kickers than there are quarterbacks.