Bengals Special Teams Coordinator Darrin Simmons: Field Goal Struggles Not All on Evan McPherson

Jay Morrison | 3 Hours Ago

Cincinnati Bengals place kicker Evan McPherson (2) kicks a field goal in the first quarter of the NFL Week 11 game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. The Chargers led 24-6 at halftime. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI – Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson spent more than 10 minutes Monday talking about his struggles, his bye week unplugging and his unwavering confidence in his ability to straighten out his issues – and his kicks.

One of the more notable things he said was how he finds it both interesting and frustrating that so many of his missed field goals have been to the left.

“My whole career since I've started kicking, my misses have always been right,” McPherson said. “So I feel like the bye week, and then this week, my focus is just figuring that out and figuring out what I'm doing wrong and trying to make corrections.”

Of McPherson’s six missed field goals this season, five have been wide left and only one wide right (the 50-yarder at Cleveland).

But the breakdown of his 15 missed field goals from 2021-2023 has nine going wide left, five wide right and one off the crossbar.

Of McPherson’s seven career missed extra points, six went right and one left.

NFLGSIS

Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons spent the bye week diving even deeper into the data.

“I looked at every practice kick that he's had, because usually what happens in practice happens in the games,” Simmons said. “There is really no correlation. He's got about the same amount of misses to the right off the right hash as he does off the left hash that are left, and vice versa.

“Of the 20 kicks he's missed since training camp started, it's not like he's missed 15 left and five right. It's damn near right down the middle, from both hashes. I tried to figure that out and see if there's a correlation, and there's not.”

The one thing that is clear to Simmons is that the blame for the field goal misses does not fall solely on McPherson. Long snapper Cal Adomitis and holder Ryan Rehkow share in the struggles.

McPherson’s field goal accuracy rate has plummeted from 84.8 in 2021 to 82.8 in 2022 to 83.9 in 2023 to 71.8 this year.

“It's just been inconsistency at all three levels,” he said. “It obviously starts sometimes with the snap, and then it goes to the hold and then it comes to him. For whatever reason, they haven't put that all together yet and developed that level of trust.

“The consistency of the operation, it's something that to become more habit, and you've just got to see it time and again,” Simmons added. “They have to develop that. And they will. They'll get there. I have no doubt in my mind. It's just taking longer than I thought it would.”

Simmons pointed out that a variance of inches from 50 yards away turns into feet at the goal post.

And the most encouraging thing Simmons said he’s seen is that McPherson isn’t letting the slightly inside snaps or off-angled holds affect his timing.

“Sometimes if there was something that wasn't as smooth with the snap or the hold, you'll see the kicker slow down a little bit,” he said. “But he has not. He hasn't let it affect him from a technical standpoint. We've just got to get the other part of it caught up, the snap and the hold to be what he's used to and what he's consistent at. 

“The normal personal probably doesn't understand that from the time the ball is snapped until the time when Evan kicks is about 1.25 to 1.27, 1.28 seconds,” he added. “That time varies very little with him – within three, four, five hundredths of a second. He's very, very consistent. That's why I'm glad that his tempo hasn't changed.”

The two biggest issues, Simmons said, are the location of the snap and control of the laces.

Adomitis hasn’t had any unplayable snaps, but does tend to

“Sometimes it's just attention to detail with alignments,” Simmons said. “We do a lot of things pre-snap to adjust our angle that we snap it at, to help with our protections. And I think sometimes the attention to detail of Cal's alignment gets off a little bit.

“And the natural tendency for a snapper is to snap it back inside toward the holder's body,” he continued. “That's the comfort zone. Nobody wants to snap it out where the holder can't get to it. Sometimes when he misses, he misses inside a bit. But he’s been much better.”

Controlling the laces has been one of the biggest issues where consistency has lagged.

“Accuracy in terms of right and left into the holder's body and probably the more important one is lace control,” Simmons said. "Being able to control the number of revolutions on the ball to where the holder catches it with the laces in front, that's as big a deal as anything.”

Every missed kick has its own story and its own villain.

McPherson is working with his fourth different holder since Kevin Huber left.

Getting McPherson, Adomitis and Rehkow on the same page in terms of technique and trust is what’s going to pull the Bengals out of their field goal funk that has them ranked tied for 30th in the league at 71.4 percent.

Only the Jets (68.4) are worse.

From 2021-23, McPherson and the Bengals were at 84 percent success rate.

“Evan's got to trust Cal, and he's got to trust Ryan,” Simmons said. “Sometimes if Cal's not right, Ryan can bail him out by getting the ball back and getting the laces where he needs to, and then it's Evan's job to kick it. It's three really distinct levels of trust that are happening there. Sometimes Cal may throw a perfect snap and Ryan doesn't get a great hold. It's just got to be more consistent.

“The operation was fine the other night,” Simmons added, referring to the 34-27 road loss to the Los Angeles Chargers when McPherson missed two field goals that would have given the Bengals the lead in the final eight minutes.

“The snaps and the holds were both fine,” Simmons said. “He just missed the kicks, which is unlike him. Hopefully the bye week did him some good, did me some good. Hopefully we can start anew, because we certainly need him.”

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