NFL kickers miss 9 PAT attempts, most under new format

By The Associated Press Extra points have been anything but automatic Sunday in the NFL.

NFL Week 11 grades: Kickers get an “F” for having historically bad day; so do Browns – CBSSports.com Here are the Week 11 grades for every NFL team that played Sunday. That one point can be the difference in a ball game, shown time and time again throughout the years. Blame the swirling winds. National Football League owners voted to shift that paradigm in hopes of making PATs more challenging and entertaining. Connor Barth and Kai Forbath.

At this point, none of Browns kicker Cody Parkey’s attempts are of much effect. Yet, last year coaches kicked 93% of the time, and have done so 92.2% of the time this year.

Mike Nugent was not as fortunate in the Bengals’ 16-12 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

This was more a comedy of errors than a series of meaningful missed extra points. They played in a dome on Sunday. They nearly forced one on the first snap at Detroit when cornerback Jalen Ramsey ripped the ball away from Anquan Boldin, but a challenge didn’t go their way. One of his block attempts was successful, and the 6-6 tie featured several missed kicks that could’ve won the game. Gould missed a second time just after the second half began. I think that happened a couple of years ago where he missed a couple and then ended up finishing the year with 15 or 16 makes in a row.

“We should have been going for a field goal right there”, said Nugent. Romo has missed the first nine games of the season and is now recovered from an August back injury that opened the door for Prescott to become the starter.

So what’s going on when a two-time All-Pro such as Gostkowski misses three PATs in the last five games? Seattle’s Steven Hauschka and Detroit’s Matt Prater had kicks blocked. That also bolds great for making the game more interesting because 2 point conversions are extremely exciting plays that were little used before this rule change was implemented.

Vinatieri, the NFL’s oldest player at age 43, missed his first two field goal attempts in 2015, but made everything since Week 4 last season. Now, kickers – and holders, snappers and blockers – do need to think about the kicks. They don’t even really practice with the rest of their team. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing; just look at how successful Sebastian Janikowski has been for the Raiders.

Week 11 isn’t even over yet, too! Give coaches more reason to keep kickers on the sideline where they belong. Difficult conditions make it harder for all parts of the special team, including the long snapper and the holder.

National Football League kickers missed like never before Sunday, setting a record with 12 failed extra point attempts.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, there were 11 missed extra points between the early games and the opening portion of the late-afternoon contests.