Missing field goals is a tough habit to kick

If you are one of those people who take perverse pleasure in watching people more famous than you fail, then you must have enjoyed watching kickers miss extra points and field goals in the NFL last weekend.

Unless, of course, you had money on their teams.

It's conceivable you did not have the latest inside information on Caleb Sturgis from DraftKings and picked him for your FanDuel team. In that case, you probably still are taking the name of the Eagles' field-goal kicker in all types of vain after he missed a 33-yarder and an extra point in Philadelphia's 3-point loss to the Redskins.

Sturgis wasn't the only "I-keek-a-touchdown-specialist" — as Garo Yepremian, who was from Cyprus, was to have said to Detroit Lions teammate Alex Karras, who was from Gary, Ind., after Yepremian once made a meaningless extra point — to struggle with his mechanics and/or confidence.

* Jacksonville's Jason Myers missed a 53-yarder at the end of regulation, which may seem like a long distance, though today's kickers hit from there all the time. Then in overtime, he missed from 48 yards, and Jacksonville lost.

* Minnesota's Blair Welch retched from 38 yards. The Vikings lost by 3 to the Broncos.

* Tampa Bay's Kyle Brindza missed two field goals and an extra point that cost the Bucs seven points. Tampa lost to Carolina by 14, so if you bet Tampa, perhaps after the game you didn't suggest Brindza take his skinny little shoulder pads and put them where the Sun Bowl doesn't shine. But when the game still was close in the third quarter, you probably did.

* New Orleans' Zach Hocker knocked a 30-yarder off the left upright at the end of regulation against the Cowboys. With Hocker watching from a safe distance, the Saints did go on to win in overtime, 26-20.

* Pittsburgh's Josh Scobee literally got the week off on a wrong foot Thursday night when he failed to keek touchdowns from 49 and 41 yards in the fourth quarter as the Steelers lost to Baltimore. Scobee no longer is keeking touchdowns for Pittsburgh. He's probably now tending bar in Allentown or making neckties in Cypress, which is how Garo Yepremian supplemented his income.

Because I don't have a fraternity brother working the cubicles at DraftKings or FanDuel, a call was placed to Mike Cofer in an attempt to get to the bottom of this.

Before moving to Las Vegas, Cofer had kicked in the NFL for eight seasons. He was San Francisco's kicker during the glory days. He has two giant rings, from Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV.

When I said I wanted to talk about the spate of bad kicking in the NFL, he chuckled in an affable manner and said I had called the right guy, because he had had a spate or two of that himself.

He also was All-Pro in 1989.

One year for the 49ers, Cofer made 14 field goals and missed 14, which was sort of tolerated then. Today's kickers are much more accurate and held to a much higher standard. Cofer said those who missed kicks last week are a victim of their own success, or at least of the success of their contemporaries.

"The guys have become so proficient, so when you have a little blip like this, people say, 'What's going on?'" Cofer said. "You expect everything to be automatic."

I saw a Twitter post from Jay Feely, who used to kick for the Giants, blaming the inaccuracies and retches on extra-point kicks having been pushed back 13 yards so they no longer are automatic, just fairly automatic. Feely said before this season, kickers could use PATs to get their mechanics down and build confidence.

Cofer, who has driven late-model stock cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring and competed briefly in the NASCAR truck series, says there's probably something to that.

Now a volunteer football assistant at Desert Oasis High School, Cofer said the next time you're at a game, watch the extra points. Some of the prettiest kicks you'll ever see are on PATs. Guys clear the nets on extra points and sometimes they hit the scoreboard.

Cofer said that's because PATs are easy; there is little pressure to make them. There's no psychology to kicking when the goal posts are so close.

"That's what we tell our kids, just make an extra point," he said, which is easier said than done from 45 yards out when the goalposts tend to become yellow blurs on the horizon.

Cofer said one should also check the transactions before logging on to DraftKings. One year he said the 49ers went through six punters, which meant he went through six holders.

"You develop a rapport with those guys," he said of the holders and long snappers. When one is released or pulls a groin muscle, rapport goes out the window. And sometimes so does one's timing.

In the end, of course, the football kicker is like the baseball manager who doesn't witness the fight among teammates at the other end of the dugout. He always gets the blame. He's first to be fired.

Mike Cofer does not take perverse pleasure in watching fellow field-goal kickers struggle, but admitted to only watching pro football from a distance these days. But he was watching at the end of the Lions-Seahawks game Monday night when one of the Seahawks illegally batted the ball out of the end zone right in front of the back judge.

Watch it again, Cofer said. Watch the back judge start to reach for his flag or his little beanbag.

He suggested the man in the striped shirt who blew that call probably should be selling neckties in Cypress with Josh Scobee.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski