Putting The "Foot" Back In Football

TDJets72027 · Nov 15, 2007

When Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo fumbled the snap on a late field goal attempt in last season's wild-card playoff loss at Seattle, the impact was huge, at least in Dallas. Not only did the Cowboys' season end, but two weeks later, Bill Parcells retired from coaching.

But those were just the immediate ramifications. Now the impact has grown ... and become more widespread.

That play -- on which, ironically enough, the place-kicker never touched the ball -- is cited as one of the contributing factors for a 2007 season that, thus far, can be summed up in four words:

Year of the Kicker.

Year Of The Kicker

NFL's STRONGEST LEGS: Who are the league's most powerful kickers? You can't go simply on the numbers. Scouts Inc. pinpoints the biggest boomers: Place-kickers | Punters

DEATH OF THE COFFIN CORNER: Angle kicking is out. Punting it deep and/or high is in, writes Mike Sando. Story

WISE GUY: Ray Guy, a member of the NFL's 75th Anniversary team and the first pure punter taken in the first round of the draft, discusses the art of kicking. Story

Scouts Inc.'s Jeremy Green discusses why kickers are having such a special season. Football Today

Fantasy writer A.J. Mass explains why, no matter how good kickers are perfoming, they're still second-class citizens. Story

Indeed, this has been a season in which NFL kickers and punters have positioned the accent squarely on the first syllable of football. All around the league, we've had Bigfoot sightings. And unlike those of Sasquatch, the trails of these strong-legged kickers and punters are far easier to track.

Such strength is demonstrated in part by the raw number of field goals made so far (3.14 per game) and the lofty conversion rate (81.2 percent). That includes the NFL-record eight successful field goals kicked by the Titans' Rob Bironas in a win against Houston.

Field goals typically are more about accuracy than power, but there certainly has been no shortage of 50-yard efforts this year. In fact, through the first 10 weeks, kickers have hit on 24 of 59 attempts from 50 or more yards, a pace slightly ahead of that of last year. The Texans' Kris Brown connected on attempts of 54, 54 and 57 yards against Miami to tie an NFL single-game record. And were it not for a few inches, another league record would have fallen, as the Raiders' Sebastian Janikowski narrowly missed connecting on a 64-yard attempt that hit high on the right upright against Houston.

"It would have went 74 yards or so," Janikowski told Bay Area media after reviewing video of the kick.
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Source - ESPN

Cheezymadman · Nov 15, 2007

DEATH OF THE COFFIN CORNER: Angle kicking is out. Punting it deep and/or high is in
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I hate this aspect of today's game. It takes no skill to kick it really really high.

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Putting The "Foot" Back In Football

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Putting The "Foot" Back In Football

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