National Football League

A Kick in the Pants

Published Sep. 15, 2020 5:48 p.m. ET

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While NFL teams haven't had the usual amount of practice time together this offseason, one would think the least impacted position would be kicker.

But as evidenced by Monday Night Football, kickers accumulate rust, too.

The Tennessee Titans narrowly escaped defeat in Mile High City, after Stephen Gostkowski made a 25-yard field goal with 17 seconds left to snatch a 16-14 against the Denver Broncos in the final game of Week 1.

Prior to that game-winning field goal, however, Gostkowski had missed his previous four kicks, including three field goals and an extra point.

Before the start of the 2020 season, Gostkowski joined the Titans, a team that owned the worst field goal unit in the league last year.

Their four kickers from 2019 – Ryan Succop, Cairo Santos, Cody Parkey and Greg Joseph – combined to connect on less than 50% of their field goals (8-for-18).

Before arriving in Tennessee, Gostkowski had boasted six full seasons in which he missed three or fewer field goals during his 14 seasons in New England.

On Monday, it marked the first time in his career he missed three, and his four missed kicks total was a career-worst.

He began this season as the NFL’s fifth most accurate kicker all-time (87.4 percent), but he ended Week 1 tied for ninth, becoming the first kicker since September 1968 to miss four attempts in his first game with a club.

Also disappointing in his season-opener was Arizona Cardinals Kicker Zane Gonzalez, who made just one of three field-goal attempts in Sunday's 24-20 win at San Francisco.

Gonzalez had a breakout 2019 campaign, missing just four field goals in 16 games, with his three misses coming from 40-49 yards. 

While Tennesee and Arizona were still able to emerge victorious despite their kicking woes, the Cincinnati Bengals were not so lucky.

Randy Bullock shanked a 31-yard field goal with 7 seconds left that would have presumably sent the game to OT. The Bengals lost, 16-13.

Overall, in Week 1 of the 2020 season, kickers were 71.6% on field goals (48-of-67) and 93.5% on extra points (72-for-77).

In Week 1 of the 2019 season, kickers connected on 84.2% of field goals (48-of-57) and 96.8% of extra points (61-for-63).

The five missed extra points in Week 1 tied the 2016 season for the most missed extra points in an opening week since the extra point was moved back to the 15-yard line in 2015.

To start the season, six kickers connected on 50% or fewer of their field goals, while in 2019, only one kicker scored on fewer than 50% of his field goals (Adam Vinatieri of the Indianapolis Colts).

Vinatieri was the NFL's career scoring leader and all-time field goal leader before the 2019 season, but last year, struggled with his worst season since 2003, hitting on only 17 of his 25 field goal attempts (68%).

One week into the 2020 season and quality kicking is officially at a premium.

We'll see if any of these field-goal maestros gets kicked to the curb in the coming weeks.

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Zane Gonzalez