Cincinnati Bengals: Big takeaways from Week 11 loss to Ravens

The Difference Between a Good Kicker and a Great One

It shouldn’t have to be said, but kickers are as important as just about anyone on the team. They may not play every snap, but they are the first player touching the ball to start a game, to set off the action after each score, and often become the player who has to convert the points to secure a victory for their team.

If you are playing fantasy football, these guys can stand to be afterthoughts without it making the difference most weeks, but in the actual games the difference between the ones who are bad, good, and great can be the difference between winning and losing a handful of games each season.

We got to see the difference between the good and the great right here in this matchup.

On the side of good is Cincinnati’s kicker, Randy Bullock. Since joining the Bengals at the end of 2016, he’s been a pretty consistent player for Cincinnati. Including this game, Bullock has made 27-of-32 on field goal attempts and 59-of-62 on PATs in that time. He’s made some game-winning kicks for the team too (including against Tampa Bay just a few weeks ago).

The problem with Bullock is he just doesn’t seem to have the leg strength for the team to feel comfortable with him taking a lot of long attempts: in about 30 games, he’s attempted just three 50+ yard field goal kicks.

Back in training camp and the preseason this year, there was even some mumbling of Jonathan Brown (a former soccer player in college who has been in Cincinnati’s camp for multiple years but never gotten a call-up to the 53-man roster) having an outside chance at taking Bullock’s job because of the apparent distance limitations he has — an issue which has for multiple seasons seemed to cause Cincinnati to forego some long field goal attempts because they didn’t believe in Bullock’s ability to convert from deep.

Contrast that with Baltimore’s situation. No team can feel more secure in their kicker than the Ravens do in Justin Tucker. He’s had nearly triple the number of kick attempts as Bullock since 2016 began, and he’s made them at a higher clip (88/94). He’s also probably the best distance kicker we have today (if not ever): in his career, he’s hit 36 of his 50 50+ yard attempts — including at least four every year to this point and going 10-10 in 2016.

This game showed the difference between the two.

Tucker got three kicks in this one, and gave his team some important points before halftime. He first put the Ravens up by three with under two minutes left, but a quickly forced punt and some good fortune (it was partially blocked) gave the Ravens a chance to get more points. Baltimore got a deep pass to John Brown to connect, and it left them in range for a 56 yard attempt — a kick Tucker would of course go on to make, giving his team a six-point lead heading into the half.

There’s no guarantee the Bengals would have tried to do the same thing given Tucker and the game situation (they have long been frustratingly conservative in their decision-making for decades), but they definitely weren’t going to try that with Bullock here. Knowing Bullock wouldn’t be likely to make a long kick, they’ve shown that they’d more likely either end up trying a Hail Mary or just kneeling the clock away before the drive even got moving.

Frustrating as it is, Bullock would prove later in this exact game that they may be right to be conservative when it comes to his particular field goal tries. On their second-to-last drive, Cincinnati gave Bullock a chance at his own 50+ yard shot; he missed it wide right to leave his team three points short and hoping their much-maligned defense might gift them with one more shot.

Those kicks showed the major difference between these two players, and how much a team’s odds of victory can improve when they have a Tucker rather than a Bullock. Cincinnati can do worse than their current man, but settling for someone with his limitations puts a certain cap on what they can hope for at that position.

Maybe next time around they give a younger guy — maybe Brown, possibly a new draft pick they actually stick with (like they should’ve done with 2017 late-round selection (and current Philadelphia kicker) Jake Elliott) — the reins, accept some possible struggles, and hope they luck out with the sort of higher-ceiling player that Bullock will clearly never become.