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Jake Elliott of the Philadelphia Eagles

When you lose a home playoff game as a number 3 seed to a number 6 seed, you can expect a lot of finger pointing and blame distribution to go around.  Well that’s exactly what happened to the Philadelphia Eagles the last time they played the Green Bay Packers in the postseason back in 2011.  The Eagles had won the NFC East title by way of a tie breaker over the Giants and ended up hosting the Wildcard round at the Linc.  Both teams had 10-6 records but the Packers ended up as the 6 seed and back then the top two seeds in each conference received first round byes as they awaited the outcome of the 3 vs 6 and the 4 vs 5 first round games.

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The Real Goat

The Packers won the game 21-16 and what most Eagles’ fans remember about Philly’s 2011 version of Black Sunday is the lasting image of MVP candidate Michael Vick throwing an ill-advised pass on a 1st and 10 at the Green Bay 27 yard line to rookie wide receiver Riley Cooper on an all-go play that wound up in the arms of the Packers’ Tramon Williams with :44 seconds left, thus, essentially ending Philadelphia’s season.  But the real goat of that game was Eagles’ kicker David Akers who missed two field goals that day, a 41-yard attempt in the first quarter and a 34-yard attempt early in the fourth quarter (are you doing the math?).

Andy Reid was the head coach in Philly back then and was known for his repetitive ownership of blame after a loss and for almost always protecting his players from the undercarriage of the proverbial bus.  When asked after game how important those two missed field goals were, Big Red said, “We can all count.  Those points would have helped.”

 The big fella obviously wasn’t happy with his usually reliable kicker that day.  It’s safe to say the entire city wasn’t real happy with the prodigal place kicker that day.  But nobody felt worse about those miscues than David Akers, himself. 

“I’d like to think that, over the years, I’ve tried to remember the positive playoff kicks that I made…but I still have the Packers’ playoff game that comes up in my nightmares. Those weren’t kicks that came at the end of the game, but they really were costly. That 34-yarder was really inexcusable. You’ve got to make the kick.” Said Akers in an interview a few years after he retired.

“You don’t ever forget it. But you have to move forward and build upon it and go to the next game. For me, I missed those kicks against Green Bay and that game happened to be my last one in an Eagles’ uniform.

A Confidence Game

Well, if Eagles Kicker Jake Elliott doesn’t get his act together by next Sunday when the Birds and Packers do battle, he could also be remembered for something he won’t forget.

Elliott might be the greatest kicker in Eagles’ history and has always been extremely reliable.  Philadelphia’s confidence in Elliot was so high prior to this past season, the Birds gave him a four-year extension last March worth $24 million.

But the franchise’s confidence in their franchise kicker has taken a hit since, as Elliott has been anything but money this year, specifically with kicks of 50 yards or more and it has altered some game-deciding decisions that head coach Nick Sirianni has had to make.  Fortunately it didn’t cost the Eagles any games this year but it did stress the offense at times and caused some white knucklers that the Birds had to survive.  But the playoffs are a different animal where the margins for error are much tighter, the competition is elevated, the urgency is heightened and every round is a win-or-go-home game.

In a league where the ball seems to have a bit more juice this year than others,  Elliott has failed to keep pace with the surging bombs we’ve seen from most other kickers league-wide.  While the Birds’ eight year veteran only missed one kick this year under 50 yards, a missed 39-yard attempt vs the Giants last Sunday, Elliott is just 1-7 on field goal attempts of 50 yards or more and his field goal percentage dropped to 77.8% (28/36), which is below his career average of 84.8%.

Be Perfect

On the other sideline, when he isn’t allegedly fondling flight attendants on the team charter, Packers’ kicker Brandon McManus is doing his best impersonation of Mason Crosby.  He signed with Green Bay on October 16th and just four days later he kicked a 45-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Packers to a 24-22 win over the Houston Texans.  Just seven days after that he kicked a 24-yard field goal as time expired to notch another Green Bay victory, a 30-27 win over his former team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.  In the season finale against the Bears, the Temple graduate kicked a 55-yard field goal with :54 seconds left which looked to be another clutch game-winning kick from the former Super Bowl winner, until he was bested by a 51-yard dagger by Chicago’s Cairo Santos as time elapsed to give the Bears the 24-22 victory.

McManus is enjoying his best year as a pro in his storied 11 year NFL career as he stepped out of a lawsuit and seemingly onto the set of Friday Night Lights, where the Odessa-Permian Panthers play under the mantra of “be perfect.”

McManus was one 46-yard missed attempt, that occurred way back on November 3rd, in a 24-14 loss to the Lions, from a perfect season.  He was a gaudy and steady 20/21 on field goals this year for a conversion rate of 95.2%, up 13% over his career average.  He was 30/30 on extra points and finished the 2024 campaign with 90 all told.  

Kickers, much like NHL goaltenders are a strange lot.  They’re superstitious, quirky, and streaky, with most of their success or failure coming from that one square foot of real estate above their shoulders.  They all have strong, swift and high velocity legs but at times their confidence can wander and that’s when inexplicable things happen. Like goaltenders that fight the puck when things start to go off the rails, kickers end up fighting the ball as well and their belief in their own abilities.  Once the self-confidence goes all bets are off.  I don’t believe Sunday’s contest will come down to the kicking game.  I’m predicting a double digit Eagles win.  But if it does my suggestion to Eagles’ Nation would be to grab your bag of popcorn, hold on tight and pray like Hell that history doesn’t repeat itself.