Angry teammates and redemption: NFL week 10 showed kickers matter

The late, great coach Buddy Ryan once quipped, “Football kickers are like taxi cabs. You can always go out and hire another one.” If Ryan were alive today, he might think again. Kickers dominated Week 10 with a collection of horrors and heroics. A few examples of how they made their presence felt:

• Denver’s Wil Lutz entered Sunday with a 95% success rate on field goals this season. So, when Bo Nix led the Broncos down the field and set Lutz up for a potential game-winning, Kansas City Chiefs-beating 35-yarder as time expired, the odds were in his favor. BLOCK. The Chiefs won 16-14 and remain undefeated.

• San Francisco 49ers kicker Jake Moody made his return from a high ankle sprain after a three-week absence. Despite his fill-ins going 8-for-8 in that period, Moody resumed his role. Moody’s shaky return sparked an emotional rollercoaster that started with his own teammate turning on him, included three misses and ended in redemption when he nailed a game-winning 44-yarder that narrowly lifted the 49ers over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 23-20.

• Unlike Moody, there was no happy ending for Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo. Koo’s three missed field goals, including one that was blocked, were costly in Atlanta’s surprising loss to the New Orleans Saints. A loss made even more painful because it was by just three points.

• Jake Bates, a rookie kicker who never attempted a field-goal during his college career (he was a kickoff specialist), hit a Lions franchise record 58-yarder to tie Detroit’s game with the Houston Texans in the fourth-quarter. Then Bates, who was working as a brick salesman not too long ago, kicked the game-winner from 52 yards to complete a comeback victory for the Lions, who had trailed by 16 points. Oh, and Bates has never missed a field goal in his NFL career.

• Minnesota debuted a rookie kicker, John Parker Romo, who knocked in all four of his field goal attempts, making him the key to the Vikings’ 12-7 victory over Jacksonville.

There is nothing automatic or predictable about NFL kicking units, but this week was particularly peculiar. No kicker had missed three field goals in a game since 2019. This week it happened twice, thanks to Koo and Moody.

The thing about kickers is they are supposed to be models of steadiness, yet they can trigger deep emotion in everyone around them. After Moody missed a third kick in swirling wind on Sunday, 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel lost his cool and was spotted on the sideline confronting Moody and long snapper Taybor Pepper. It was a terrible look for Samuel, who said his reaction was down to frustration. “I think he has a little dog in him,” Samuel said of Moody. “I wasn’t saying nothing crazy to him. I was just kind of frustrated at the time. But he went out there and won the game of course, and he wasn’t bothered by it, so we move past it.”

Related: ‘We may see a 70-yarder’: NFL kickers are excelling. How much better can they get?

Then again, the rhythm of the kicking game makes errors harder to swallow for many people – fans, coaches and players alike. If a receiver drops a clean pass and two plays later the running back takes it to the house, no one (other than the receiver’s fantasy owner) will care. But a kicker missing a field goal has a buildup and expectation. Therefore, the misses cut deeper.

Back in 2019, when Cody Parkey’s infamous double-doink knocked the Bears out of the playoffs, then Chicago coach Matt Nagy was so agitated that he brought in what seemed like a million kickers to try out at minicamp and forced them all to kick from 43 yards, the distance from which Parkey missed. Parkey’s miss was the beginning of the end for Nagy, and the Bears have been in disarray ever since.

Kickers have thankless jobs. Really, they are only celebrated when kicking game-winners or long field goals. And, for those who denigrate kickers, it should be noted that the long kicks are becoming more commonplace. Soon enough, the regularity of 60-yard makes will probably become a thing.

In a league all about competitive advantage, kickers matter. How they gel in the locker room, whether they are healthy, their ability to be a gamer. And yes, their ability to make most, and ideally all, of their kicks. Maybe a team lucks in on an ex-MLS center-back like the Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey who can nail 65-yarders. But kickers are not a uniform species. They need to be fostered and included and counseled when in a slump. Because as we witnessed this week, they really can make or break a game … and a season.

MVP of the week

Kyler Murray, QB, Arizona Cardinals. There was 8:03 left in the first half with the Cardinals leading the New York Jets 14-6. Kyler Murray was leveled by Jets linebacker Quincy Williams, losing his helmet in the process. The old Murray might have been annoyed with his offensive line. But this year’s Murray is a cold-blooded beast. This year’s Murray stood up, smiled, and went on to throw a dime to Marvin Harrison Jr for a touchdown.

Murray demolished the Jets defense in an easy 31-6 win. His new-found maturity was evident, especially when it came to his decision-making and accuracy. Murray only had two incompletions on the day and at one point threw 17 straight completions, a Cardinals record. He was adept on the ground, punching in two of Arizona’s touchdowns with his legs to go through another through the air. Most importantly, he genuinely looks like he’s having fun.

Video of the week

Pittsburgh’s 28-27 win over the Washington Commanders was a nailbiter. But it was the first and last touchdowns that illustrated how spectacular the Steelers’ offense is becoming under Russell Wilson. George Pickens put up the first points of the game with a catch he was going to make come hell or high water.

The game-sealing catch came from brand new acquisition Mike Williams on a beautiful floated pass from Wilson.

There were some defensive holes and an embarrassing missed attempt at a fake punt, but there’s a lot to like in Pittsburgh. Starting with Wilson, who is 3-0 as the Steelers’ starter. Now at 7-2 and rolling, the Steelers have passed the “Will Mike Tomlin keep his consecutive streak of non-losing seasons alive?” stage. The goals are much loftier now.

Stat of the week

23. That’s the number of consecutive drives without a touchdown for the Chicago Bears. The hope that defined the Bears’ offseason and early season has evaporated. Chicago fans were booing from start to finish as the pulseless Bears offense continued its freefall in a 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots. No 1 overall pick Caleb Williams once again held on to the ball way too long. Has this kid ever heard of a checkdown? Are the coaches even trying to draw up some high-percentage plays? In any event, the combination of Williams dancing around, and a feeble offensive line resulted in nine sacks. Somehow Williams escaped this one unscathed physically. His mental state may be a different story. The Bears have fallen to 4-5 and a coaching change seems inevitable.

Elsewhere around the league

• There was a nice moment in the 49ers-Bucs game when San Francisco rookie wideout Ricky Pearsall caught his first NFL touchdown just two months after being shot in the chest. Speaking of comebacks, running back extraordinaire Christian McCaffrey made his season debut after dealing with achilles tendinitis. Last season’s offensive player of the year picked up where he left off, accounting for 107 total yards on Sunday. He was especially productive from the slot, and it was immediately clear that his presence transforms the 49ers offense.

• We briefly mentioned the Lions game above, but it’s hard to do it justice. Jared Goff threw five interceptions, Detroit were 23-7 down at halftime and the Lions still won 26-23 to move to 8-1 for the season. They’re not only the best team in the NFL, they’re also the most exciting to watch.

• Jerry Jones told reporters that he will not fire Mike McCarthy during this season. His rationale is regretting the times he’s made a coaching move midseason. The Dallas Cowboys fell to 3-6 after being smoked by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Cooper Rush, starting for an injured Dak Prescott, threw for only 45 yards, and the team lost four fumbles. Jones appears content to torture his fanbase for the rest of the season.

• What a debut for interim head coach Darren Rizzi, who led the New Orleans Saints to a 20-17 upset of the Atlanta Falcons. It was a surprising turn of events for Rizzi, who later told the media that he had expected a crappy day. Literally.

• Poor Tyrone Tracy Jr. The rookie appeared inconsolable on the New York Giants sideline after fumbling the first snap of overtime to set up an easy Carolina Panthers game-winning field goal. Tracy deserves little blame, though, as he again was a bright spot for the Giants, rushing for 103 yards, including a sensational 32-yard touchdown and a 5.7 yard per carry average. In fact, Giants fans ought to be marveling over Tracy’s football IQ as the 20-17 loss puts the 2-8 Giants in the picture to secure the No 1 pick in the 2025 draft. Miami’s stud QB Cam Ward must look especially attractive to Big Blue after Daniel Jones turned in another abysmal performance, underthrowing his targets throughout and tossing two picks.

• It appears more International Games are on the docket. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told NFL Network’s Colleen Wolfe that the league is targeting eight regular games out of the country including a return to Brazil and Mexico, as well as adding an Ireland match. I’m sure the players will be thrilled.