There’s a lot of speculation about his future, but Brady is saying nothing.
Will a guy with that much pride be willing to quit on a sour note?
Can he get up for another season?
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Weird NFL stat: Dallas kicker Brett Maher missed four PATs in Monday’s game. To put that in perspective:
- Matt Stover only missed three in his life – and he played in the NFL 19 years, suiting up for 297 regular season games and 16 more playoff games! At one point he made 469 in a row.
- Rian Lindell missed only one PAT in 14 years (212 games) and made his first 321 attempts. He is the all-time leader in PAT% at 99.8%
Neither of those players kicked past 2015, when the PATs moved back to their current location (snapped from 15 yd line, vs the 2 yd line).
True enough, but the effect of that only dropped the league average to 94%.
Justin Tucker, for example, has missed only five in his life. In his first three seasons, which transpired before the rule change, he was 110 for 110, and in the first three years with the new rules he was 95 for 95.
Will Lutz has played his entire career since the change, and has only missed seven in six years.
That noted, the difference between 99% and 94% becomes astronomical when you look at the likelihood of missing four in a row. The odds against a 94% kicker missing four in row are about 77,000 to 1. The odds against a 99% kicker missing four in a row are a hundred million to 1.
Maher is a lifetime 95% kicker, so the odds against him missing four in a row are 160,000 to 1. There’s no way to explain it with “shit happens” when it has such a slim chance of happening. If Maher has no new issue like an injury, a balance problem, or eyesight problem, then he just plain choked.
The commentators said imbed missed 5 in a row. He’d missed the last one in the previous game too. So, he choked at even the thought of going to the playoffs. Or maybe there’s something else going on for him.
It was so bad the commentators were nonchalantly discussing being replaced next year.