Kick against the Saints and become a Hall of Famer!

I’ve been asking this question for months now and no one ever gives me an answer on twitter. The question is “who is the last kicker to miss against the Saints”? We always joke that it was some time in the 80s, or even the 70s, but seriously it’s starting to get ridiculous. What prompted this again was the Panthers-Falcons game. Watching Graham Gano, a usually solid kicker, miss the game winning attempts from 46 and 63 (blocked) made me think – man, can you imagine if that just would have happened once this season? Must be nice to watch a kicker miss a field goal. I barely remember what that feels like. The Saints would be 5-5. The Falcons, Browns, 49ers and Lions (who made a field goal off the goal post!) would have all lost to the Saints with just one missed field goal.

So far this season it shakes out like this:

Matt Bryant 3 for 3 (40, 51, 52)

Billy Cundiff 2 for 2 (32, 29)

Blair Walsh 3 or 3 (25, 30, 40)

Dan Bailey 1 for 1 (51)

Patrick Murray 1 for 1 (55)

Matt Prater 1 for 1 (21)

Mason Crosby 3 for 3 (27, 31, 49)

Graham Gano 1 for 1 (31)

Phil Dawson 2 for 2 (45, 35)

Mike Nugent 2 for 2 (22, 42)

So you guessed it, kickers are 19 for 19 on field goal attempts against the Saints this year and that includes four over 50 yards. Shayne Graham, by the way, is 15 of 16 on the year. If you go back to last year, 23 consecutive field goals have been made on the Saints. That hurts the most when you consider the fact that four of the Saints’ six losses have come in the final 2 minutes by 3 points or less. Two of those games (Falcons and 49ers) necessitated long field goals to extend the game at the end of regulation and another in overtime to seal the Saints’ fate. The Browns also hit a walk off winning kick at the end of regulation against the Saints.

There have been 593 kicks attempted this year and 487 have been makes. So that means the average is just above 82%. So are the Saints just facing better than average kickers? Actually, no. If you combined the stats for the nine kickers the Saints have faced in 2014, they are making field goals at an 81.6% clip – or just below the NFL average. This includes the 19 for 19 they have collectively put together against the Saints. Pretty unreal. We know the Superdome has it’s advantages kicking but this is starting to get a little ridiculous, especially when you consider how many close games the Saints have had.

So when you tell people the Saints have had unreal luck facing kickers – it’s actually true. Whoever the Saints play doesn’t miss. So back to the original question, when was the last regular season miss? It was Graham Gano of the Carolina Panthers on December 8th, 2013 who missed wide right in the Supderome on a 49 yard attempt. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the next kicker the Saints face is Justin Tucker (19 of 22 on the season), so don’t expect this streak to end anytime soon.