See Mike Vanderjagt. Most accurate kicker in NFL history, but he missed some big ones for the Colts.
Bad News Bears Kickers
- Thread starter exCYtable
- Start date
See Mike Vanderjagt. Most accurate kicker in NFL history, but he missed some big ones for the Colts.
Sure. And to your point about things like approach time and trajectory I get what you're saying, but I wouldn't necessarily want excess data cluttering up my assessment of kickers in a tryout setting. Let's say two guys each attempt 20 kicks. One makes 18 of 20 and the other guy makes 15 of 20 but based on the tracking tool he has a better ball trajectory and an approach time that's just a hair quicker. The first guy was still more accurate.
I understand that more data can be a good thing but there's such a thing as outsmarting yourself or overanalyzing. Feels very much like that is what's happening here.
Thanks for that painful memory. The refs did everything they could to gift that playoff win to Indy over the Steelers in 2005. And then Vanderjagt hits an all-time shank on a 46 yard attempt. It would've been one thing to miss; a 46 yarder is no gimmie. But it wasn't even close.
I'm not a Vikings fan but Gary Andersen's only missed kick of the 1998 season being in the NFC championship game is just as painful - if not more so - for them. It was a 38 yarder that would have likely iced the game. They lost to Atlanta in overtime when Morten Andersen connected on a field goal - also a 38 yarder.
Gary Anderson hadn't missed a field goal prior to that in two years.
Last edited:
I know for sure I felt worse for Gary Anderson. By then he had been a good kicker for well over a decade and he deserves to be remembered for more than one fluky miss.
No such sympathy for Vanderjagt, who was by most accounts an insufferable, frosted tipped douchebag.
