Another missed fieldgoal dooms Chargers!

Field goal. Two words.

Signed,

Athlete's mother representing group of angry parents

 

Extraordinarily well played, Meat!

 

A 54-yard field goal. OK. That's a good one. But here's my question.

If you're an NFL coach and your kicker has 52-yard range, are you NOT keeping one eye open for somebody who can give you a shot if you get down the opponent's 38 or 40?

I mean, if you luck into one of those combination kickoff boomers who has the leg for 57 but not necessarily the consistency, that's something in itself. But where do you all want to draw the line here? 52 yards? 50? 48? At what point should an NFL kicker be reasonably expected to make the kick?

My line in the sand is probably a little bit further out than some of yours. Then again, I've seen three high school kickers hit from outside 50 in the past five years.

 

Keep in mind in high school kids are kicking off 2" blocks. Still 50+ is a solid boot, but it's not the same as off the grass. 45 and in you should have confidence of the kicker making it, feeling pretty good from 45-52, beyond that you are hoping he can pull through.

 

Spot is confused again about who uses a tee for kicking.

 

Where I am, there are no blocks, and I saw a kid hit a 52-yarder that would've been good from probably 55 or 56 this year.

That said, when I saw them send out the FG unit in SD for that last one, the first thing I said was, "Remember, Marty went for it on fourth and 11 from the 30 because he knew Kaeding wasn't hitting it. Forget 54. This game's over." Verbatim, right there.

Marty knew Kaeding wasn't hitting that, but if he tried anything else (ie, a 5-yard out to get a few yards closer) and didn't get a kick off, he would've been strung up.

 

What really did in the Chargers: the Santa Ana winds!

 

Global warming won the game for the Patriots. /al gore

 

He may have known it was unlikely, but at that point, I think he was right that trying the FG was his best shot.

 

My line in the sand is 50 yards. I would expect my kicker to be 100 percent inside 30 yards, 90 percent inside 40, 75 percent inside 50 and 50 percent outside 50. I think if you have that, then you have a solid kicker.

Of course, it wasn't the kick at the end of the game that did in the Chargers, it was the non-kick in the first quarter that did them in. No guarantees that Kaeding makes in it the first quarter, but he had a better chance of making that than Rivers did of making 11 yards.

 

Agreed. It was inexplicable for Marty to pass up a makeable FG attempt to go for it on 4th and 11. He said after the game that he thought they had a play that could get the yardage. What? He thought it was more likely that he'd get 11 yards on 4th down against the Pats than his Pro Bowl kicker making a 47-yard FG? Just a ridiculous decision. Nantz and Simms, of course, barely raised an eyebrow. Nice analysis, guys.