Kickers Keep Putting Mark on NFL Season, and That's Not Really a Good Thing

There might not be a more deflating feeling in sports than a missed field goal. Your team did all the work to get into a position to score only for that one outcast on the roster to mess it up. That guy should lose his job!

Obviously it's not always that simple, but in the NFL that is how it seems sometimes. Kickers are unappreciated when they make field goals and hated with a passion when they miss. Unfortunately for the sport, it seems like there has been a lot of missing lately.

Last season was a golden age of sorts for kickers with 26 different players nailing at least 80 percent of their attempts. Week 4 of the 2015 season barely resembled anything like that.

The troubles started Thursday night when two Josh Scobee misses were blamed for the Pittsburgh Steelers' loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh released Scobee shortly after in favor of Chris Boswell.

Although it won't help the Steelers, some fans might be happy to know they aren't alone in their misery. Kickers became the story of games throughout the day Sunday thanks to many more misses, many of them in key moments.

Jacksonville Jaguars rookie Jason Myers had a rough day, missing a chance to hit a game-winner in regulation and then in overtime:

The Philadelphia Eagles lost by three points, which means the missed field goal by Caleb Sturgis might have been useful. A number of other key attempts went wide right and left to hold back offenses around the league.

ESPN's Kevin Negandhi summed it up:

The reaction wasn't great around the league, including those on the field:

There were a total of 13 missed field goals in Week 4 heading into Sunday night's prime-time matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. That's exactly an average of one per game, which is way too many for what should be a small factor in the outcome.

Amazingly, this doesn't even include Myers' miss shortly after a timeout was called or San Diego Chargers kicker Josh Lambo's miss to win the game, which the official discounted because of an offside. The Cleveland Browns' mistake gave him another chance, and he succeeded.

Add this ineptitude to four different kickers missing extra points, and we have an epidemic on our hands.

One of those extra-point misses came from New York Giants veteran Josh Brown, who was happy at the rule change that forced kickers to attempt the point after the touchdown from the 15-yard line instead of the 2.

"Because the old extra-point kick was like a basketball layup with no one guarding you," Brown told Bill Pennington of the New York Times. "Who’s going to watch that? That’s when everyone got up and went to the bathroom."

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Pennington noted there were already 13 missed attempts heading into Week 3, which was more than all last season with the original rule.

Well, people are watching now, and it's hard to imagine they are liking what they see. Sure, it does create a lot more drama in that portion of the game, although that's not necessarily what you want as a fan. Losing a game because your quarterback threw too many interceptions? You can handle that and adjust. Lose because the kicker missed a chip shot? That's when things start getting broken in the house.

Not to take anything away from the men who do this for a living. They are the best at what they do and are difficult to replace. However, the amount of top players has gotten extremely thin. It's actually gotten so bad that the ostracized Scobee might not be out of a job for too long, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports:

Maybe this is a good thing because it separates the best in the league from the rest. Kansas City Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos made it look easy with seven made field goals Sunday. Robbie Gould crushed his game-winner from 49 yards away:

Adam Vinatieri also made a game-winning field goal at the youthful age of 42, becoming the Indianapolis Colts' all-time leading scorer in the process.

This shows there are still players at the position who can get it done at a high level. They are just coming few and far between at this stage of the year. If things continue down this path, there might be an insane bidding war in the offseason for the few men who prove themselves.

On the other hand, even college kickers should be able to make the 33-yard extra point with regularity. It clearly has become a mental hurdle some veterans haven't been able to overcome. Although it might be too early to make sweeping declarations, more of the same will only cause more problems within the NFL.

If we are still discussing this as an issue in January, you can be certain the league will reconsider the rule change. More excitement is a good thing, but fans don't want to see championships decided by makes and misses on field goals and extra points. That doesn't help anyone.

You can be certain everyone involved in the game will hope for more success in this area of the game going forward.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter for more year-round sports analysis.