Cincy Fans Feel the Frustration This Season wIth Bengals' Shayne Graham

After last weekend's Cincinnati-Bengals-Examiner%7Ey2009m11d23-Bengals-17-Raiders-20-Cincy-allows-Oakland-to-score-10-points-in-final-minute-of-game" target="_blank">20-17 loss to the Oakland Raiders , Cincinnati Bengals fans have recently expressed their frustration with kicker Shayne Graham, who missed a 37-yard field goal in the third quarter.

While it's hard to blame the loss on him individually considering Bengals wide receiver Andre Caldwell fumbled the kickoff with 17 seconds left, it’s obvious how important Graham’s missed field goal was later in the game.

Not only are fans frustrated with his missed attempt from the loss to the Raiders, but they are beginning to become frustrated with his performance through the first 10 games this season—especially with everything that occurred in the offseason.

Graham seemed unhappy with the way negotiations talks worked out between him and the Bengals during the offseason. After he was placed with the franchise tag in February, he signed a one-year deal worth $2.483 million at the end of April.

After the signing, he expressed his desire was a long-term deal from the Bengals or from whichever team was willing to sign him.

With the way the ninth-year kicker has performed as a Bengal, it seemed as if Mike Brown and company would have to issue granting Graham his wish for a long-term deal. He holds five records with the franchise, including highest field goal percentage in a season (91.2), most points in a season (131), field goals in a season (31), most field goals in a game (seven), and consecutive field goals made (21).

Prior to the 2009 season, Graham was the team's all-time leader for field goal accuracy at 87.5 percent and ranked fourth on the NFL all-time list with an 85.6 percent kicking accuracy. With these types of statistics, it's hard to imagine the Bengals not offering him the long-term deal he desired.

However, the Bengals may be relieved the long-term deal was never offered in the offseason with the type of numbers Graham has put up this season.

Through 10 games, Graham is having not only his worst season as a Bengal, but his career. His 37-yard field goal attempt against the Raiders that fell wide right is only one of the five attempts he's missed on the season (12-of-17).

His field goal percentage (70.6) this season is the worst of Graham's nine-year career. Other than his first two seasons in the league with the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers, his lowest kicking percentage came in 2006 (83.3).

The loss to the Raiders was the first time Graham missed a field goal in a game the Bengals came up on the losing end for. His previous misses came in wins against the Steelers (twice), Browns, and Ravens.

Week 11 consisted of five games (Falcons-Giants, Redskins-Cowboys, Colts-Ravens, Bengals-Raiders, Titans-Texans) decided by three points or less in which a kicker on the losing team missed a field goal during the game. Each of these five games could have ended differently had certain field goals been made instead of missed.

Last week is the perfect example of how important kickers are in the NFL. If the Bengals make a deep run at this year's playoffs, how are they supposed to feel comfortable with Graham if they need to rely on him for a pressure situation?

Despite his struggles this season, all that Cincinnati fans can do is pray Graham will come through if needed for the remainder of the season. If not, it would be no surprise if the Bengals decided to part ways with him in the offseason.

Dan Parzych is the Cincinnati Bengals Examiner for Examiner.com

He is also the founder of WhoDeyBengals.com