By Joe Nelson
Posted 01/20/2010 at 03:44 PM

We mentioned last week that the kicking game could prove pivotal and it certainly proved to be the case. In a year where several kickers have struggled, Nate Kaeding will be the goat of the playoffs this season to this point, going 0-3 on field goals in San Diego’s 17-14 home loss to the Jets. Kaeding hit 32 of 35 in the regular season and had a string of 67 consecutive field goal makes from 40 yards or less. His playoff failures are nothing new as this is the fourth time that Kaeding has missed a big kick in the game that the Chargers have been eliminated from the playoffs. An over 87 percent accuracy kicker in the regular season, Kaeding has hit just 53 percent in the playoffs. While the kicks may have been less critical in looking at the final score, the misses from Shaun Suisham were also devastating momentum killers. Suisham’s did make a field goal for the only points for the Cowboys and his misses were at difficult distances but he is another kicker that could have helped his team considerably.

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By Joe Nelson
Posted 01/11/2010 at 04:35 PM

With a record 96 points in the Cardinals/Packers match-up, scoring was commonplace in the opening round of the playoffs. That game will get most of the attention as the other three games were not terribly competitive affairs but all four games played ‘over’. This is not likely to be a postseason won by dominant defense and low-scoring grind-it-out type games as the opening totals will suggest again this week. Another big factor that will aide higher scoring is the locations as this week there are three dome games and the lone outdoor game will be played in the sunny calm of San Diego.

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