According to Pro Football Talk, and general common sense, Nick Folk is on his way out in Dallas.
It should come as no surprise that 1 week after surviving a ‘kick-off’ Dallas Cowboys kicker Nick Folk appears to be out in Dallas after nearly blowing their biggest win of the season, and their playoff hopes, on a chip shot vs. the Saints.
Shaun Suisham, who similarly lost his job after blowing a field goal against the Saints that DID end up costing his Redskins the game.
Everyone was (justifiably) ragging on Suisham at the time, but it may surprise you to know: he’s only missed 3 field goals this year. Folk has missed 10 and somehow managed to survive for 15 weeks.
Week 15, though I don’t have any statistics to back me up, had to be the worst week kicking in the NFL this season. The statistics aren’t yet available through profootballreference.com but, through 14 games the league had an 80.5% field goal percentage, already the worst mark in 5 years, and certain to go down after Week 15’s games, still, I was surprised to learn that its by far not the worst in recent memory. Apparently, before my time as a football fan/blogger/living human being, people in the NFL couldn’t kick to save their lives. From the 70’s through early 90’s it was pretty common to see league wide kicking statistics in the 60 and 70 percent range…
All Folk has to do is find a time machine and his 64% will do just fine. However, for now: its completely unacceptable on a pro-football team.
I’ll excuse the occasional missed 40 yarder, and 50s are obviously no gimme, but it amazes me that there aren’t 32 guys in the entire world that cannot routinely hit 30 and 40 yard field goals. I don’t kick in the NFL, and have no idea the talent it takes to do so, or the pressure these guys are under – but, if they were willing to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars a season to do so, you could be sure I’d try to figure it out…
