National Football League

Icing the kicker now the norm;Stats show ploy often backfires. But don't tell that to Mike Smith,

Published Oct. 10, 2010 10:13 p.m. ET

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It has become a familiar sight to every NFL fan.

Just a few seconds left on the clock. One team's field-goal unit is lining up for the potential game-winning kick, while an official is standing within earshot of the other team's coach. Everyone on the field and in the stands is going through the motions, just waiting for that last-instant timeout that's going to render the first field-goal attempt moot.

It's a practice that goes back to Week 2 of the 2007 season, when then-Denver coach Mike Shanahan used the tactic on Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who made his first attempt, knocked his second off the upright and, in doing so, launched a football coaching fad.

Falcons fans are as familiar as anyone with it, as kicker Matt Bryant has been dealt the last-second "ice" in two consecutive games.

Against New Orleans, his first, uncounted attempt was blocked, leading to his overtime game-winner on what became his third try after a penalty. Then, versus the 49ers, he had no trouble on either attempt, giving him two game-winners in as many weeks.

The maneuver is one more late-game trick in a coach's book, and hardly anyone seems immune from jumping on the bandwagon.

"We've been 2-for-2 on our icing," said Falcons coach Mike Smith, who referenced his successful icing timeouts earlier this season before halftime at Pittsburgh and at the end of regulation against New Orleans. "I know that somebody's got the statistics out there that it probably doesn't help. I can just speak from the experience that I've had that it has definitely worked for us."

Regardless of how well it's worked for the Falcons, he's right about the statistics.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal published a study that showed kickers have made 77.3 percent of kicks since 2000 when no timeout was called before the kick and 79.7 percent after a timeout was called.

Kickers did better with the timeout at every distance level the Journal specified, but the gap was especially pronounced on longer kicks. From 51 yards and longer, kickers made 42.6 percent without the timeout and 56 percent after the timeout.

But since the last-second tactic has been in vogue for only a few years, it may be difficult to get a handle on just how well it's working at this point.

"That's a really tough question because you look really smart when he misses the second one, and you look really dumb when he [makes] the second one," said Browns coach Eric Mangini, whose team hosts the Falcons today. "That's one of those that you get evaluated on it after the timeout is called and knowing exactly how it's going to go. Year-in and year-out, you see both. You see it in pro football. You see it in college football. I wish it was one patented answer there, but I don't think there is."

One former coach who thinks there is an answer to the question is former Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who retired in 2003 after 23 seasons as an NFL head coach and four Super Bowl appearances.

During Reeves' time in the NFL, timeouts had to be called by the players on the field, which made the new icing tactic impractical if not impossible. That rule changed in 2006, leading to the birth of the late timeout the following season.

Had it been possible to do when he was on the sidelines, though, he said he wouldn't have any part of it.

"I don't like it," Reeves said. "If I was coaching now, if I was going to ice it, I'd do it the same way it used to be. ... You want to make them think about it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think it's good sportsmanship to call it at the last second."

He said he thinks the rule needs to be tweaked so coaches aren't allowed to call a timeout that late.

"I think they need to do something where it doesn't happen," Reeves said. "He makes the kick and then, all of a sudden, well, a timeout was called. I think it needs to be looked at. I don't know the answer."

A rule change was considered as early as the 2007 season, as the possibility of a so-called "Shanahan Rule" was discussed among some people on the NFL's competition committee, but nothing has been done in the three years since.

Bryant said that has been his approach and, after the past two weeks, it's tough to fault him for whatever he's doing.

"You just have to make it," Bryant said. "It doesn't do you any good to think any other way because you still have to kick it."