The Minnesota Vikings are the worst…at kicking Extra Points
Aj Mansour
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The Minnesota Vikings are the worst.
No seriously, they are. They’re the worst team in the NFL at kicking extra points since the rules changes and moved the extra point back a ways to the 15-yard line back in 2015.
Before the rule change, the completion percentage across the league for extra points from the 3 yard line (20-yard kick) was 99.3%. Extra points were almost never missed.
Continuing success, since the new rules were enforced a couple years back two teams have yet to miss an extra point (Dallas & Baltimore). Thirteen teams have missed 3 or fewer in that three season span. But in 74 attempts for the Minnesota Vikings, they’ve missed 13 extra points. That’s an extra point completion percentage of only 82.4%.
During that first season of the deeper kicks Blair Walsh went ahead and missed four extra points, then he missed an additional four more in 2016 before he was cut by the Vikings and Kai Forbath was brought in to take over the kicking duties. Kai went on to miss three more last season but he was cold right off the street right?! Wrong.
Forbath missed his second extra point in as many weeks yesterday during the Vikings 26-9 loss in Pittsburgh. So what gives?
It’s not as if Forbath is a “bad kicker”. Sure he’s not the best in the league, but he is a perfect 19-for-19 kicking field goals and many of those, most of those in fact have come from further back than what the 32-yard extra point has become. He’s perfect you guys, but for some reason scoot that thing up, make it worth only one point and something is different.
For what it’s worth, Forbath doesn’t seem too worried.
“Just pulled my head too quick,” Kai Forbath said after the game. “I’ve just got to stay down on it. It’s nothing that I’m concerned about.”
On the other hand, Mike Zimmer seems concerned. Asked after the game if he’s worried about the missed extra points the head coach simply said “Yes”.
To date it hasn’t really come back to bite the Vikings in the butt this season, but we’ve seen before what happens when failure leads to media questions and the added pressure that puts on a kicker…ahem Blair Walsh.
In other news, Blair Walsh also missed and XP yesterday for Seattle…so there’s that.