NFL kickers can’t stop missing extra points in Week 11

Week 11 of the NFL has been pretty wild when it comes to extra points for kickers. Not in a good way, either. On the afternoon, NFL kickers have missed an NFL record 12 extra points.

Before any of the early games could even get to halftime, we had five missed extra points across the league. It turns out, missing extra points had become infectious.

The first one we saw came when the Chicago Bears’ Connor Barth’s went wide right against the New York Giants. In the same game, a former Bear and current Giant, Robbie Gould, had his extra point hit the left upright. Gould would miss another one in the third quarter.

In the Bengals-Bills game, Bengals kicker Mike Nugent had his extra point hit the right upright. He would later miss one late in the first half, yet again hitting the right upright.

Now that we got all of the uprights hit, other NFL kickers had to switch it up.

Lions kicker Matt Prater had his extra point blocked after a punt return for a touchdown.

The Minnesota Vikings, who just released Blair Walsh this past week after his kicking woes finally became too much, have already had a kick blocked by his replacement, Kai Forbath.

It truly was contagious. In the Jacksonville Jaguars game against the Lions, where we’ve already seen one missed extra point by Matt Prater, we saw another. This one came from Jaguars kicker Jason Myers, who pushed one wide right. This gave us 7 missed extra points on the afternoon.

As the early games approached their respective fourth quarters, missed extra points didn’t stop. Browns kicker Cody Parkey missed an extra point, because it wouldn’t be a story of failure without the Browns.

One of the NFL’s more accurate kickers, the Patriots’ Stephen Gostkowski missed one in the first quarter of the Patriots game against the San Francisco 49ers, giving us 10 missed extra points on the afternoon.

The Philadelphia Eagles helped set the record for the most missed extra points in one NFL Sunday, blocking Steven Hauschka’s extra point after a 72-yard touchdown by C.J. Prosise.

The fun didn’t stop on Sunday Night Football, as Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins bounced one off the uprights. It was windy when Washington took on the Green Bay Packers at FedEx Field, and Washington had attempted — and was unable to convert — two 2-point conversions, which looked like a better idea after Hopkins’ PAT failed.

The NFL adopted new rules for PATs prior to the 2015 season and shifted extra point attempts to the 15-yard line. The hope was that the change in distance would make PATs, which were nearly automatic before, more challenging for kickers, and thus more entertaining for fans.

In 2014, kickers missed a total of eight extra point attempts over the entire season. In 2015, after the rule change went into effect, there were a total of 71 PATs missed. With 12 missed kicks in one day, it’s clear that the rule change has been an adjustment for kickers.

It’s tougher than it looks, but let’s get some of these through the uprights!