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Factoid

Playoff kickers

Slim pickings at kicker in first round

I’m starting the write-ups for the first round of the playoffs, and I can’t remember a worse year for kickers. Outside Wil Lutz, there just isn’t much there.

Lutz is great. He scored 144 points in the regular season, 2nd-most in the league behind Harrison Butker. Lutz was a top-7 scorer in each of his first three seasons.

But after Lutz, it tails off pretty dramatically. Dan Bailey scored 121 points in the regular season, but his five games with double-digit points all came against teams with losing records. He averaged only 4.8 points in his five games against teams with winning records. He’ll be on the road against the Saints. They finished with a winning record in the regular season.

Nick Folk, I suppose, makes the most sense as the 2nd-best kicker on the board this week, but the Patriots looked pretty iffy at times in the regular season – particularly on Sunday. And they used four different kickers during the regular season. But New England at least have scored 120 kicking points – 11 more than five of the other teams playing this week.

The Titans are the strangest kicking team of all. Their offense caught fire under Ryan Tannehill, but they scored only 74 points on field goals and extra points, the fewest by a playoff team since Tampa Bay in 1997 (with Michael Husted). To find any other teams with as few as 74 kicking points, you have to go 40 years back to 1979, with the Bucs (Neil O’Donoghue) and the Denver Broncos (the late Jim Turner).

KICKING POINTS (teams playing this week)
TeamXPFGPts
Kansas City4534147
New Orleans4832144
Baltimore5728141
San Francisco4930139
Dallas4630136
Arizona3431127
Atlanta2932125
Tampa Bay4327124
Minnesota4027121
New England3927120
Jacksonville1933118
Pittsburgh2829115
LA Rams4224114
Detroit3526113
LA Chargers3526113
Denver2529112
Seattle4023109
Carolina3125106
Green Bay4022106
Cincinnati2427105
Cleveland3025105
Philadelphia3522101
Houston4020100
Indianapolis332299
Miami292398
Washington212596
Buffalo302296
Chicago272396
Oakland341991
NY Jets231980
Tennessee50874
NY Giants351271

—Ian Allan

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