Vikings Kicker Dan Bailey Has Missed Seven Times in the Past Two Games
Vikings veteran kicker Dan Bailey self-destructed on Sunday and may have cost his team the game.
Read: Vikings Replacement Kicker Options
Bailey, the former longtime Dallas Cowboy who was once the most accurate kicker in NFL history, can't make a kick to save his life at the moment. He went 0-for-3 in the first half against the Buccaneers, missing an extra point, a 36-yard field goal and a 54-yarder. None of the three were particularly close. Then, with the Vikings trailing 23-14 in the fourth quarter, he missed a 45-yarder wide right.
If you're keeping track, that's an 0-for-4 day for Bailey, directly costing the Vikings 10 points in a game they lost 26-14. It gives him seven missed kicks on nine attempts going back to the previous game.
Per CBS Sports, Bailey's day was historically bad.
"I don’t know what the struggles were," Mike Zimmer said. "He pulled one to the left and pushed three to the right. It does let a little bit of air out [of the team's confidence]. You anticipate guys making those kicks."
Bailey's struggles began a week ago. Through the first 11 games of the season, he had made 12 of his 14 field goal attempts and 26 of 27 extra points. Then, against the Jaguars, he missed three of his five kicks—two extra points and a potential game-winning 51-yard field goal.
During the week leading up to this game against the Buccaneers, Bailey seemed to think that everything was OK.
"It was just a strange deal," he said. "I was really consistent into the ball from a timing standpoint. I actually had a pretty good pregame, I thought, so I went into everything feeling good, feeling confident. I've been practicing really well, too. You know, I don't know that I can really put a finger on it, other than it obviously wasn't up to the standard, and it was pretty out of character for me to go out there and do that. I'm not proud of it; I'm a little embarrassed about it, to be honest, but it's just one of those things where you just have to move on and try to go knock the next ones through.”
Bailey said that he wasn't going to change anything in his preparation or approach, brushing off the rough outing as a fluke. Both Mike Zimmer and special teams coach Marwan Maalouf expressed confidence in the veteran kicker, although Maalouf did point out a potential mechanical issue.
"I think he was hitting a little bit higher on the ball," Maalouf said. "I kind of noticed that a little bit after the second miss. Just had a bad day. That’s probably the biggest thing. He’s had a good week of practice. He had a really good week of practice the week before and leading up to it in pregame, and he does a good job."
This week needed to be a bounce-back performance for Bailey, and instead it's been the exact opposite. He appears to be completely melting down from a mental standpoint, with none of the four kicks against Tampa Bay coming close.
Prior to last week, the last time a Vikings kicker missed three or more kicks in a game came when Daniel Carlson did it in Week 2 of the 2018 season. The Vikings cut Carlson after the game despite having just drafted him in the fifth round.
Going forward, the Vikings may need to give Bailey some competition for the job—or just cut him. They have second-year kicker Tristan Vizcaino on the practice squad and could also look to bring in some veterans next week.
"At this point in time, we’re not really worried about feelings anymore," Zimmer said when asked about having to play it carefully with a struggling kicker. "I’m really disappointed. I have a lot of faith in him, I have a lot of confidence in him. But these last two weeks have not been good."
Zimmer did make a point to say that this loss doesn't entirely fall on Bailey's shoulders.
"I don’t know right now," Zimmer said when asked about potentially replacing Bailey. "He kicked good during the week this week. So we’ll just have to make a decision and go with it. Like I said before, I’ve had tons of confidence in him. He’s had a very good year. He’s had a couple bad weeks now. But you know, we can’t throw away 10 points and things like that. It’s not just Dan Bailey. We gave up a 50-yard throw because a couple guys weren’t in the right place. You can’t do that either. If you guys want me to fire guys for making a mistake here, a mistake there, then we wouldn’t have any players. Let’s not put this all on Dan Bailey."
Between Bailey's missed kicks and a couple questionable defensive pass interference calls, everything went wrong for the Vikings in Tampa. They played well on offense for stretches and lost in large part because of Bailey's misses.
If they're going to rally after these final three games and make the playoffs, they need to figure out a solution at kicker.
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