Bengals kicker Mike Nugent had a big hand in The Day the Kickers Couldn’t Kick Straight.
Nugent missed two of the 12 extra points that kickers around the league missed in Week 11 action and those misses loomed large in a 16-12 loss to the Bills that saw the Bengals trying to score a touchdown on their final drive of the game. They also continued a trend of shaky work from Nugent this season.
Nugent missed a field goal and an extra point in the Bengals’ Week Nine tie with the Redskins in London and he missed two field goals in Week Eight against the Browns, leading the team to look at kickers during their post-London bye week. They opted to stand pat and coach Marvin Lewis says the same is true after Nugent’s latest misses.
“It’s always a comparison, no question,” Lewis said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s easy for everybody to say make that change, but when that change doesn’t work out what do you do? I’m way more comfortable with helping Mike get corrected and through this and him having the confidence we expect in him and have in him.”
Nugent’s misses have been costly in a pair of bad results for the 3-6-1 Bengals, but a run with the team that started in 2010 isn’t coming to an end just yet. Those misses and several other things have made it likely that the Bengals’ run of playoff appearances will meet with an unhappier fate.