Succop Aims for 'Another Good Day' Against Former Team

Titans kicker has never missed a kick against Kansas City

Coming off the worst game of his NFL career, Ryan Succop could not have asked for a better opponent.

After all, no team seems to bring out the best in the Tennessee Titans kicker like the Kansas City Chiefs do.

Succop has faced the Chiefs twice during the regular season and once in the playoffs in his five-plus seasons with Tennessee. He has made all seven field goals and all four PATs he has attempted, including a 53-yard field goal as time expired in frigid conditions that lifted the Titans to a 19-17 victory over the Chiefs on Dec. 18, 2016. It is the longest game-winning kick of his career.

“That’s probably one of my favorite football memories,” Succop said Thursday. “I got to share that with a lot of great guys. So that was really cool and something I’ll always remember. I kind of cherish that moment.”

Then there was last Sunday at Carolina, which was one of the most forgettable performances of his 161 career appearances.

In his season debut (he was on injured reserve for the first eight weeks), he missed a 43-yard field goal to the left, had a 56-yard attempt fall short and had a 44-yard try bounce off the right upright in a 30-20 defeat. That tied his career-high for the most misses in a single game and it was the only time he attempted least three but made none.

Of the league’s top 10 kickers in terms of points, through the first nine weeks of the season, seven have missed three field goals or fewer overall.

“You can kind of make yourself sick if you sit there and dissect it too much and you can think about it too much,” Succop said. “So, I try to look at it, learn from it and then – honestly – just get back out on the practice field and knock them through. That’s kind of what I’m hoping to do.

“… You’ve got to be able to bounce back. That’s what I’ve focused on this week and that’s what I’ll be ready to do this Sunday.”

Kansas City is one of five teams against which Succop has attempted more than five field goals in his career without a miss. But it is the only one for which he also played.

The Chiefs used the final selection of the 2009 NFL Draft on him and for five seasons (2009-13) he was their placekicker. During that time, he never missed more than six field goal attempts in a single season. Kansas City cut him at the end of the 2014 preseason, and he immediately signed with the Titans.

His first game for Tennessee was against the Chiefs and he went 4-for-4 on field goals (the kicks ranged from 31 to 47 yards) in a 26-10 victory.

It was a good start that helped propel him to fifth on the franchise’s career scoring list. He also was the team’s leader in career field goal percentage – before last week. Now, at 84.7 percent, he is second to Rob Bironas (85.7).

This game against Kansas City offers an opportunity to start over.

“It’s been kind of neat to get to play against my old team several times,” he said. “… I’ve enjoyed that and hopefully this Sunday will be another good day.”