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Zuerlein bracing for longer extra point
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_177cf6ea-3888-504c-9a6d-8330bb1f1123.html
Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein didn’t get a vote on the matter, otherwise extra points would still be kicked from the 2-yard line.
“They didn’t ask for any kickers’ votes,” he said laughing.
NFL owners certainly made life more, uh, interesting for the place-kicking fraternity, voting in March to move back the line of scrimmage for extra points to the 15. Beginning with the 2015 season, it will take the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal distance-wise for that point after touchdown.
That’s 13 yards farther back from the traditional spot at the 2.
“Can’t do anything about it,” Zuerlein said. “So might as well just start practicing from there. The fortunate thing is if you do well, it’s gonna make your value as a kicker go up.”
Conversely, too many hiccups kicking PATs from 33 yards won’t do much for job security.
“There’ll be plenty of misses, I guarantee you that,” Zuerlein said. “If you have an off-game or just a bad hit — there it is. It’s gonna happen. I think you’ll still make most of them, but you miss ’em at the wrong time ... and it could cost you a game.”
During his three-year NFL career, Zuerlein has missed four of 28 field goal attempts in the 30- to 39-yard range. It’s not automatic.
“Obviously, you can’t hit a perfect ball every time,” he said. “So even if you hit a decent ball, you’re still gonna miss some of the time. So many times you see kickers hit PATs and they (barely) get in there.They just squeak ’em in.”
Some of those extra points that “just squeak in” from the traditional 20 yards away will now be misses from 33 yards.
“It’d really stink to have a big game come down to it,” Zuerlein said. “Because it could be that the offenses did their job, the defenses did their job.”
And then a 33-yard extra point sails wide, no good.
“There’s probably gonna be some games won or lost by that,” he said. “So we’ll see what the fans’ reaction is to that, and see if the NFL (likes that). For me, why would the fans want to see a game end like that? That’s just my take.”
But the NFL probably would love it. The feeling behind the change was that the PAT had become way too predictable; the league wanted to make it a more competitive play. Zuerlein has missed only one of 95 extra points in his Rams career.
Coach Jeff Fisher is a member of the league’s competition committee, which studies such rule changes. He’s also a special teams aficionado, and is fine with the rules change.
“I understand the rationale and the reason behind it — to put a little bit more emphasis on the extra point because of the percentages,” Fisher said. “One school of thought is someone’s gonna be put in a position to kick an extra point in the fourth quarter in December in the AFC or NFC North in a 40 mile an hour wind to tie a ballgame.”
While a dome team such as the Rams will be kicking indoors in a comfortable, controlled setting.
“But it’s going to make it a much more exciting play,” Fisher said. “I think we’re gonna see more two-point attempts.”
The Rams may have half their games indoors but they have the potential for several games this coming season where the weather could be a factor on the now-longer extra points.
The Rams have road games at Baltimore (Nov. 22), at Cincinnati (Nov. 29), at Seattle (Dec. 27), and at San Francisco (Jan. 3). All are outdoor venues.
As Zuerlein points out: “Someone has to go to Green Bay in December with swirling winds and snow to make a PAT to maybe go to the playoffs or something. That’s a little different circumstance (than kicking in a dome).”
The Rams won’t face extreme cold in San Francisco or Seattle, but the weather at those venues can be raw, windy, and wet that time of year.
“Any time it’s later in the year, the fields can be pretty rough,” Zuerlein said. “You never want to be kicking on a poor field because your foot slips a little or any little thing goes wrong late in the year like that. You just never know.”
Under the new PAT rule, teams will have their choice of where the ball is spotted after scoring a touchdown. They can choose the 15 and kick the extra point, or choose the 2-yard line and go for a two-point conversion.
There was some discussion about moving up the line of scrimmage to the 1 ½ — or even the 1-yard line for two-point attempts, but it stayed at the 2.
“I’m glad it ended up the way it did,” Fisher said. “I was opposed to moving it to the 1 ½-yard line. (Or the 1.)”
The 33-yard extra point is just another example of the league making things tougher on place-kickers.
First, the goal posts were moved to the back of the end zone from the front. For a while, kickoffs were moved back to the 30 from the 35 to encourage more kick returns. (Kickoffs subsequently were returned to the 35 as a safety measure for return and coverage players. The idea being fewer returns meant less collisions and fewer concussions.)
There was also the introduction of the “K-ball,” which cut down drastically on the amount of scrubbing and scuffing of footballs the kickers could do to soften up the ball.
It’s almost as if the kickers have been penalized for being too good at their jobs.
“I do wonder that sometimes,” Zuerlein said. “Because the better we get, the harder they make it. But the better the receivers get, or the better the quarterbacks get, they don’t make it any harder on them.
“You could make the receivers not wear gloves. Who knows? You could implement all kinds of different rules. Quarterbacks are passing for record numbers.”
But kickers are more accurate than ever — not necessarily a good thing in the eyes of the NFL.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_177cf6ea-3888-504c-9a6d-8330bb1f1123.html
Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein didn’t get a vote on the matter, otherwise extra points would still be kicked from the 2-yard line.
“They didn’t ask for any kickers’ votes,” he said laughing.
NFL owners certainly made life more, uh, interesting for the place-kicking fraternity, voting in March to move back the line of scrimmage for extra points to the 15. Beginning with the 2015 season, it will take the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal distance-wise for that point after touchdown.
That’s 13 yards farther back from the traditional spot at the 2.
“Can’t do anything about it,” Zuerlein said. “So might as well just start practicing from there. The fortunate thing is if you do well, it’s gonna make your value as a kicker go up.”
Conversely, too many hiccups kicking PATs from 33 yards won’t do much for job security.
“There’ll be plenty of misses, I guarantee you that,” Zuerlein said. “If you have an off-game or just a bad hit — there it is. It’s gonna happen. I think you’ll still make most of them, but you miss ’em at the wrong time ... and it could cost you a game.”
During his three-year NFL career, Zuerlein has missed four of 28 field goal attempts in the 30- to 39-yard range. It’s not automatic.
“Obviously, you can’t hit a perfect ball every time,” he said. “So even if you hit a decent ball, you’re still gonna miss some of the time. So many times you see kickers hit PATs and they (barely) get in there.They just squeak ’em in.”
Some of those extra points that “just squeak in” from the traditional 20 yards away will now be misses from 33 yards.
“It’d really stink to have a big game come down to it,” Zuerlein said. “Because it could be that the offenses did their job, the defenses did their job.”
And then a 33-yard extra point sails wide, no good.
“There’s probably gonna be some games won or lost by that,” he said. “So we’ll see what the fans’ reaction is to that, and see if the NFL (likes that). For me, why would the fans want to see a game end like that? That’s just my take.”
But the NFL probably would love it. The feeling behind the change was that the PAT had become way too predictable; the league wanted to make it a more competitive play. Zuerlein has missed only one of 95 extra points in his Rams career.
Coach Jeff Fisher is a member of the league’s competition committee, which studies such rule changes. He’s also a special teams aficionado, and is fine with the rules change.
“I understand the rationale and the reason behind it — to put a little bit more emphasis on the extra point because of the percentages,” Fisher said. “One school of thought is someone’s gonna be put in a position to kick an extra point in the fourth quarter in December in the AFC or NFC North in a 40 mile an hour wind to tie a ballgame.”
While a dome team such as the Rams will be kicking indoors in a comfortable, controlled setting.
“But it’s going to make it a much more exciting play,” Fisher said. “I think we’re gonna see more two-point attempts.”
The Rams may have half their games indoors but they have the potential for several games this coming season where the weather could be a factor on the now-longer extra points.
The Rams have road games at Baltimore (Nov. 22), at Cincinnati (Nov. 29), at Seattle (Dec. 27), and at San Francisco (Jan. 3). All are outdoor venues.
As Zuerlein points out: “Someone has to go to Green Bay in December with swirling winds and snow to make a PAT to maybe go to the playoffs or something. That’s a little different circumstance (than kicking in a dome).”
The Rams won’t face extreme cold in San Francisco or Seattle, but the weather at those venues can be raw, windy, and wet that time of year.
“Any time it’s later in the year, the fields can be pretty rough,” Zuerlein said. “You never want to be kicking on a poor field because your foot slips a little or any little thing goes wrong late in the year like that. You just never know.”
Under the new PAT rule, teams will have their choice of where the ball is spotted after scoring a touchdown. They can choose the 15 and kick the extra point, or choose the 2-yard line and go for a two-point conversion.
There was some discussion about moving up the line of scrimmage to the 1 ½ — or even the 1-yard line for two-point attempts, but it stayed at the 2.
“I’m glad it ended up the way it did,” Fisher said. “I was opposed to moving it to the 1 ½-yard line. (Or the 1.)”
The 33-yard extra point is just another example of the league making things tougher on place-kickers.
First, the goal posts were moved to the back of the end zone from the front. For a while, kickoffs were moved back to the 30 from the 35 to encourage more kick returns. (Kickoffs subsequently were returned to the 35 as a safety measure for return and coverage players. The idea being fewer returns meant less collisions and fewer concussions.)
There was also the introduction of the “K-ball,” which cut down drastically on the amount of scrubbing and scuffing of footballs the kickers could do to soften up the ball.
It’s almost as if the kickers have been penalized for being too good at their jobs.
“I do wonder that sometimes,” Zuerlein said. “Because the better we get, the harder they make it. But the better the receivers get, or the better the quarterbacks get, they don’t make it any harder on them.
“You could make the receivers not wear gloves. Who knows? You could implement all kinds of different rules. Quarterbacks are passing for record numbers.”
But kickers are more accurate than ever — not necessarily a good thing in the eyes of the NFL.
