Wide Right: The biggest missed kicks in NFL playoff history

These are the kicks that shaped history and destroyed psyches

PublishedJanuary 21, 2023

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About halfway through the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Wild Card game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars, Chargers’ kicker Cameron Dicker missed a seemingly insignificant field goal wide left. No matter though. The Chargers were up 10, and with so little time, three points wouldn’t matter, right? That assumption was so very wrong. The Jaguars went on to win by a final of 31-30. Dicker’s field goal would’ve given the Chargers the win.

Of course, at the time of the kick, it was impossible to know how important it would be, but that’s not the case for every botched field goal during the NFL playoffs. Obviously, looking back we can understand, but in the moment, Dicker likely wasn’t under the type of pressure that some people have experienced. Game on the line, one kick could win it or give your team a chance, and a miss would mean certain defeat. Those are the moments that define kickers, for better or worse, so here are some of the biggest whiffs in NFL playoff history.

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Matt Bryant - 2002 NFC Wild Card

Image for article titled Wide Right: The biggest missed kicks in NFL playoff history — Image: Getty Images

This one was more of a botched hold than a missed kick, but nonetheless, it was a special teams opportunity that could have sent the Giants to Tampa Bay to face the eventual NFC champions, but unfortunately for Big Blue, long snapper Trey Junkin botched the snap and holder Matt Allen botched the hold. Had Allen tried to get the ball down, it would’ve been blocked by the 49ers. Instead, Allen rolled out right and heaved a Hail Mary toward the endzone, praying that left guard Rich Seubert would come up with the catch. He didn’t.

While the ball was in the air, Seubert was dragged to the ground by Chike Okeafor, leading many Giants’ fans to believe they’d earned a pass interference call. Re-watching the play, Okeafor’s actions certainly would qualify...if Seubert wasn’t an ineligible receiver. According to the NFL rulebook, pass interference can only be called if a defensive player hinders an eligible receiver’s ability to catch the ball. Although a flag was thrown, the penalty was on the Giants. The 49ers obviously declined and won the game.

Kicker Matt Bryant never got an opportunity to kick the game-winning field goal. Bryant was a rookie, but had been pretty good from long range to start his career. During the 2002 regular season, he’d gone 3-of-4 from 40-plus yards, although he had missed one from 42 yards earlier in this game. Although that kick, as well as Jeremy Shockey’s dropped touchdown with four-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter, are what allowed San Francisco to mount their incredible comeback, the botched snap and hold are what ultimately doomed New York.

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Blair Walsh - 2015 NFC Wild Card Game

Although not the first instance of Vikings’ fans suffering curses in the playoffs, this tends to be the one they bring up first when dumping their playoff football trauma on your naive ears. In just his fourth NFL season, Blair Walsh had just wrapped up his second career season where he led the league in field goals made (34). Not only did he lead the league in field goals, but he’d been automatic from short range, nailing all nine kicks he’d attempted under 30 yards in 2015. In fact, Walsh had only ever missed one kick under 30 yards in his career up to that point. Yes sir-ee, this was as automatic as my car’s transmission.

WIDE LEFT!

The Seahawks, one year removed from refusing to hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, had squeaked out a playoff win by the hairs on their chinny-chin-chins. Walsh had already drained three field goals, two of which were from much longer distances, but somehow, some way, the Seattle magic (or Vikings’ misfortune) reared its ugly head at the last possible moment. Sure, Vikings fans also have the Minneapolis Miracle to fall back on, but with zero Super Bowl titles in their franchise’s history, I’d be willing to bet that most Minnesota fans believe the missed Walsh kick hurts more than the Miracle felt great.

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Nate Kaeding - 2004 AFC Wild Card

Much like the Minnesota Vikings, the Chargers are a rather cursed franchise. In 2004, this team was still in San Diego. They’d just drafted Phillip Rivers but were still rolling with Drew Brees under center. LaDainian Tomlinson had just wrapped up his first-ever All-Pro season. And despite having not reached the postseason in nearly a decade, the Chargers were hosting a playoff game and were primed for a run.

Knotted up at 17 in overtime, the Chargers made it all the way to the Jets’ 22-yard line. Keep in mind, overtime rules were still sudden death at this point. The team turned to rookie kicker Nate Kaeding to nail the game-winner. Kaeding had a solid rookie season, hitting 20-of-25 field goal attempts. The Chargers were probably feeling pretty confident. Kaeding missed wide right, allowing the Jets to march down the field immediately afterward and ice the game on a 28-yard field goal from Doug Brien (more on him later).

Crazy enough though, this wasn’t the worst playoff game for Nate Kaeding against the New York Jets. In 2009, Kaeding missed three field goal attempts against the Jets in a 17-14 loss. If he’d made just two of those, Rex Ryan wouldn’t have been able to convince the world that Mark Sanchez was an elite quarterback. Unfortunately, Kaeding, the 12th-most accurate kicker in NFL history — and the only member of the top 12 to have played before 2005 — just couldn’t get it done in the playoffs. Despite all he accomplished during his career, Bolts fans probably don’t remember him very fondly.

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Doug Brien - 2004 AFC Divisional Round

While Brien may have sent the Jets to the Divisional Round, he cost the Jets a shot at the AFC Championship Game just one week later. With an opportunity to take down the top-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers on the road, Brien failed to muster up the same ice in his veins that helped him carry the Jets past San Diego a week earlier. He missed wide left, forcing the game into overtime, the third-straight game the Jets had been forced to play a fifth quarter. That would wind up being Brien’s last kick as a New York Jet.

In overtime, Steelers’ kicker Jeff Reed connected on a 33-yarder to win the game. Karma is the cruelest of mistresses, isn’t it?

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Cody Parkey - 2018 NFC Wild Card

Remember when people, myself included, believed Matt Nagy was the future of the NFL? It was a crazy time, but not crazy enough to throw off playoff hero Nick Foles. Fresh off a Super Bowl victory the year prior, Foles traveled into Chicago for Wild Card Weekend. The Bears’ defense had been mauling opponents all year long, and the score of their first playoff game reflected that strength. With ten seconds left in the fourth quarter, Philly led 16-15, but Chicago quarterback Mitch Trubisky had given the Bears a fighting chance.

Kicker Cody Parkey trotted out to attempt a 43-yard winner. The snap was off, the hold was good, and Parkey drilled the ball through the uprights. Unfortunately, Philadelphia had called a timeout right before the snap. They had to redo the kick. The cold air of Soldier Field was sinking deeper into Parkey’s bloodstream. The pressure was mounting. Could he really send his former team home in his first playoff game? What a moment that would be as long as he didn’t mess it up. The snap comes. Just don’t mess it up. Just don’t mess it up. Just don’t mess it up.

DOINK! DOINK!

Off the upright, off the crossbar, out of the playoffs. Bears fans still haven’t forgiven Parkey for this double doink.

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Gary Anderson - 1998 NFC Championship

Gary Anderson was a perfect 35-of-35 on field goal attempts for the Minnesota Vikings in 1998. With just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of their game against the Atlanta Falcons, Anderson had an opportunity to put Minnesota up by ten, practically guaranteeing the Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1976 season. Anderson, a member of the NFL Hall of Fame’s All-1980s and All-1990s teams, missed wide left.

Everything was alright though. The Vikings were still up by seven and their defense had held strong all game. It would still take a miracle for Atlanta to come back. Well, Atlanta mounted an eight-play, 1:07 drive capped off with a touchdown pass to Terance Mathis. Atlanta’s kicker, all-time great Morten Andersen (with an ‘e’) tied the game up and sent it to overtime. Anderson never got an opportunity to kick a game-winner. Andersen, on the other hand, won the game with a 38-yarder. As great a season as Anderson had, he’ll always be remembered as the man who blew the 15-1 Vikings’ Super Bowl chances out the window.

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Lin Elliott - 1995 AFC Divisional

The Kansas City Chiefs were the top seed in the AFC heading into the 1995 playoffs. Led by quarterback Steve Bono (backed up by Rich Gannon by the way) on offense, but carried by their remarkable defense, the Chiefs looked to shut out the Indianapolis Colts in the Divisional Round. The defense did its part, holding the Colts and quarterback Jim Harbaugh to just 10 points and only 112 yards passing. Bono, meanwhile, threw three interceptions, and was even benched for Gannon late in the game.

Still, despite the offense’s struggles, kicker Lin Elliott had multiple opportunities to win this game. Elliott missed from 35 to end the first half, missed from 39 halfway through the fourth quarter, and with 42 seconds left, missed a 42-yarder that would’ve sent the game to OT. Chiefs’ fans couldn’t believe their eyes. This was their year. Sure, Colts’ kicker Cary Blanchard missed two kicks of his own, but at least he’d made one from 30 earlier in the game. Blanchard went 1-for-3 on the night, and that difference between him and Elliott’s 0-for-3 is what pushed Indianapolis to the AFC Championship Game.

Elliott never kicked in the NFL again.

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Martin Gramatica - 2006 NFC Wild Card Game

Much like the botched snap in 2002 that would have sent the New York Giants to the Divisional Round, this failed attempt does not rest on the shoulders of kicker Martin Gramatica. Rather, this failed attempt falls entirely on the holder, Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo.

With a chance to go up 23-21 late in the fourth quarter, the snap from long snapper L.P. Ladouceur was practically perfect. Romo just couldn’t hold on.

Most Romo haters will point to his lack of playoff success as the focal reason why he wasn’t as good as some people believed, and this blunder only strengthens that argument. The fumble at the end of the play really didn’t change the outcome. As soon as Shaun Alexander ran for 20 yards on the very next play, the game was practically over. Sure, the Cowboys had all three timeouts, but their hopes had been dashed. They were hanging onto a thread that Romo had already tugged on and snapped.

Kicker Martin Gramatica was 2-for-2 on field goal attempts up to that point having hit one from beyond 50 yards already, but he never got a chance to win the game. What’s funny is that Gramatica was brought onto the Cowboys in mid-2006 after the team cut kicker Mike Vanderjagt (more on him later), and he just so happens to have an infamous playoff miss of his own.

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Mike Vanderjagt - 2005 AFC Divisional

Just one year prior to Romo’s botched hold, Mike Vanderjagt — more famously referred to as Peyton Manning’s “idiot kicker” — was living large on the Indianapolis Colts. He’d earned an All-Pro nod in 2003 and led the league in extra points in 2004. He was so good during that stretch that ESPN put him on the cover of its magazine. His career started to fall off the rails soon afterward though.

In 2005, the Indianapolis Colts had gone 14-2 en route to the AFC’s top seed. Even better, for their Divisional Round matchup, they were set to face the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team they’d decimated 26-7 earlier in the season. Coming off a bye, this game should’ve been a piece of cake. It wasn’t. Manning and Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger engaged in a hard-fought battle that saw the Steelers leading 21-18 with 21 seconds left to play. If Vanderjagt could hit a 46-yarder, the game would go into overtime.

Over the previous three seasons, Vanderjagt had been nearly automatic between 40 and 49 yards, hitting 24-of-27 from that distance, but this time, it wasn’t even close. Wide left. Vanderjagt threw a tantrum on the field immediately afterward and cost the Colts 15 yards on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The penalty didn’t mean anything in the long run. Regardless of the ball placement, the Steelers would’ve just knelt the game away. Still, it exposed Vanderjagt’s true colors. He never kicked for the Colts again.

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Billy Cundiff - 2011 AFC Championship

The year was 2012, and the entire world was already sick of seeing Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Luckily, with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Baltimore Ravens had an opportunity to push the AFC Championship Game against Brady’s Patriots into overtime. All they needed was a 32-yard field goal from kicker Billy Cundiff. Cundiff had gone 16-of-16 on field goals in the fourth quarter that year. He’d been more clutch than that third pedal in cars with manual transmissions.

This time though, the football gods were against Cundiff. He shanked the ball wide left, and on replay, it looks like he put a massive spin on the ball or the wind really took it. The ball was headed straight for the center before taking a huge turn and missing massively, almost as if Football Jesus Tom Brady reached over from the opposing sideline and pushed the ball out of the way.

The Ravens would go on to win the Super Bowl the following season, but Cundiff was no longer with the team. The ghosts of that kick stayed with him. In five games with Washington in 2012, Cundiff went just 7-of-12. Through Washington, Cleveland, and finally Buffalo. Cundiff never shook off that missed AFC Championship Game field goal.

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Scott Norwood - Super Bowl XXV

The most infamous missed kick of them all. Scott Norwood had an opportunity to grant the Buffalo Bills their first-ever Super Bowl in 1990. His team was down 20-19 to the New York Giants with just eight seconds left. Norwood, an All-Pro in 1988 stepped onto the field, ready to make history — 47 yards between the Bills and eternal glory. The kick went up and fell right of the goal posts.

Norwood was never automatic from that distance. His best season saw him connect on just 6-of-9 attempts from that distance. He’d gone 6-of-10 from that distance during the 1990 regular season. This kick was never a sure-fire win, but Norwood had an opportunity to become a legend in the city of Buffalo, and he failed. Instead of a legend, he became a villain, a name you never speak out loud.

Norwood’s missed kick set the standard for four straight Super Bowl losses for the Bills, none ever getting as close as they got in Super Bowl XXV. Norwood wasn’t a part of those final two AFC Championship rosters. Perhaps his presence in the Bills’ locker room was too much for Bills’ fans to bear. Whatever the case, it will be a long time before any missed field goal matches the magnitude of Norwood’s shank.

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