Which Greg Joseph Stands Up?
Ted Schwerzler
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What a difference a week makes, right? On Christmas Eve Greg Joseph lined up for a franchise-record 61-yard field goal and banged it through the uprights to walk off the New York Giants. On New Year’s Day he took the field multiple times against the Green Bay Packers and looked like the guy who was previously begging to be cut. So, going into the playoffs, which Greg Joseph will stand up?
There’s no need to tell a Minnesota Vikings fan that kicking woes have been something synonymous with the franchise in recent history. Whether it was Gary Anderson’s catastrophic miss, or Dan Bailey’s fading career, we’ve seen good ones flop. We have seen Blair Walsh miss, and Daniel Carlson miss. This season, we have seen the good and bad of Greg Joseph and his misses as well.
Early on in 2022, Joseph started fine. Then came Weeks 4 through 8. The Vikings kicker converted just 75% of his extra points and an even worse 66.7% of his field goals. At the time, it looked as though Kevin O’Connell would allow his kicker to sink an otherwise promising season. Despite racking up wins, Minnesota was needing to overcome a key aspect of special teams letting them down.
Then he went on a run.
From Weeks 9 through 16 Joseph was among the best kickers in the NFL. He nailed 20 of 22 extra points and was a perfect 13-for-13 on field goals. That included his career and franchise long banger against the Giants. Setting up a kicker for a 61-yarder is an undertaking in and of itself, but Joseph avoided it being blocked, didn’t leave it short, and sent everyone to Christmas with their stockings full.
Things came crashing back to earth last week. Minnesota settled for a field goal after an ugly set of play calls from the one-yard-line, and things went downhill from there. On the ensuing kickoff, Joseph may have suffered what ultimately led to his ineptitude the rest of the day. Being juked out of his cleats, the Vikings kicker failed to provide any resistance to the Packers housing his kick.
Taking the field two more times for field goals on the day, Joseph missed from both 46 and 50 yards out. Maybe he could blame that on grass field conditions that looked worse than a backyard after slip and slide fun from toddlers, or maybe he could blame it on the weather (though it was hardly a traditional January game at Lambeau). No matter what he points to, the reality is that the ball didn’t go through the uprights.
Although the Vikings have one more regular season game at Soldier Field next week against the Chicago Bears, many of their starters will be sitting. Joseph is the only kicker on the roster and will continue to be supported by his head coach, but the opportunities provided by a host of backups could be few and far between. Again kicking from a grass surface, Joseph would have an immediate opportunity to exorcise demons that reared their head a week ago.
Hosting a home playoff game, likely against the same New York Giants, Minnesota would prefer not to need a 61-yard banger from Joseph to seal it. He’ll be back on turf kicking, and though that could provide some consistency, it’s not something that can be leaned on on their way to the Super Bowl.
O’Connell has leaned on his kicker previously this season, and showed him his full support. He’ll need to do that again as the Vikings look to lick their wounds from a laugher, and Joseph can quickly make him look good by rebounding a few days from now.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes weekly for Twins Daily. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.