Hope Ray Wersching was watching tonight.
What set that up? I saw the video clip, but why is he allowed to kick that without all the snapping and blocking thing of a field goal attempt?
Free kick rule. It’s very rarely invoked. The last time anybody tried was several years ago and I don’t think anybody has actually made one in decades.
ETA: Those Wikipedia guys are fast. The page is already updated.
You can make a free kick on the play after a fair catch. And, as you note, on a free kick, there’s no snap, no attempt to block the kick by the defense, etc.
It’s a play which nearly never occurs, since it’s (a) it’s pretty unusual for a fair catch (on a punt) to happen close enough to the opponent’s end zone for a field goal attempt to be feasible, and (b) it’s pretty much only ever tried at the end of a half – if there was more than just a few seconds left on the clock, you’d just send your offense out there to try to move the ball and maybe score a touchdown.
As noted above, the last time one was successfully made was by Ray Wersching, in 1976.
Thank you both. Just when you think that after 35 years of sort of following the game you’ve got the hang of it, something like this happens.
I think Belichick did something similar 10+ years ago, but in that case he was basically taunting the other team or something I think. Or maybe just amusing himself.
You may be thinking of the drop kick extra point which Belichick allowed Doug Flutie to do, in Flutie’s final NFL game in 2006.
Drop kicks look like punts, except that the ball has to bounce off the field before it can be kicked; the drop kick was how kicking field goals was done in the early game, before the ball was made less round (to facilitate passing), at which point the “place kick” that we see now came into vogue.
Flutie’s drop kick was the first successful one in the NFL since 1941.
Here’s a video of it:
I was at the Packers - Lions game when the Pack attempted a fair catch kick.(Dec 2008) It was the end of the half and the Pack called a fair catch. Some players even started heading to the locker room. Then the ref said by rule a fair catch kick could be attempted. The kick was right down the center but short by a few yards.
Brian
Even if the opposing team is pointing from their 5 and the punt only goes 40 yards, that’s still a 63 yard FG attempt. It almost has to be a very poor punt, or like in this case, a penalty assessed on the punt that moves the ball closer.
It would only be a 55 yard attempt in that case, because there’s no need to snap the ball 8 yards back like in a normal FG play. But the point still stands that it’s unusual for a fair catch to happen close enough to try the free kick FG.
The kicker gets to run up to the fair catch kick like a kickoff, right? As opposed to a regular field goal where you only get to take like three steps.
I remember years ago before any of the kickoff rules were changed how it wasn’t all that unusual to see a kickoff go through the uprights.
They can run up to field goal attempts as well. They’re not limited in distance behind the ball. It’s just that it’s the best and/or most consistent way to score. A longer run up generally means more time for the defense to disrupt the attempt, which they still do sometimes anyway.
The fair catch kick itself has to be a drop kick or place kick. You don’t use tees on field goal attempts at the NFL level since they start at the line of scrimmage and they’re not allowed for the free kicks at the NFL level either. Since they don’t practice doing different run ups for these types of once in a blue moon kick attempts - consistency is kind of important - a longer runup is more liable to screw up the attempt than help out.
Could you do a standard kickoff type run up with a holder for the ball? Kickoffs use holders when it’s windy, so that would be a frequently practiced skill.
Sure. The problem is that you’re giving the defense those extra steps as well, and it’s going to get blocked.
No, they have only shown that they can make a lot of serious noise during the regular season. They have yet to prove that they can duplicate that success in the playoffs. The Bills are 0-3 against KC and Mahomes in the playoffs. I expect nothing different this year.
A pox upon you! Go Bills!
Correct. And that’s why some very long kicks have been attempted, like the 69-yard one that @N9IWP mentions, which fell just short.
I didn’t see the one on Thursday – I’ve never seen one – but my understanding was that on a fair catch kick, the defense has to line up 10 yards back or whatever, similar to a kickoff.
They do. The question, I think, was why kickers don’t do a longer run-up on regular field goals (and the answer is, it makes a block far more likely).
Yeah, I thought you were asking why kickers don’t do more of a run up for regular field goals.
Oh, that makes sense. I was asking specifically about the fair catch kick with the thought of years ago when regular kickoffs started going through the uprights.
Looking up the history of kickoff rules, the kickoff line was moved from the 40 to the 35 in 1974, then to the 30 in 1994. I feel like I remember kickoffs occasionally going through the uprights more recently than 1994, but maybe that’s just me getting old.
That led to my thought of if you can do a traditional kickoff run-up with a holder, you’d have a shot well into your territory. Practically a gimme from your own 40 or better, I’d think. But now that I write that out, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out that kickoffs with a holder don’t go as far as with a tee. But still.
Now I’m starting to question my memory of kickoffs going through the uprights. I swear I remember that happening infrequently but not rarely. Anyone else remember that or am I just misremembering shortened kickoffs from penalties?