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The Cleveland Browns have found many ways to lose games over last season plus. In the last 22 games, the Browns are 10-12 with some draining losses including this year where they joined just two other teams in the Super Bowl era, not in a good way.
Field goal kicking has been one of the problems. Fans’ confidence in rookie Cade York is relatively low after he’s missed two of his first 10 field goal attempts (80%) and two of his first 15 extra point attempts (87%).
Last year, Chase McLaughlin made just 71% of his field goals but missed just one of his 37 extra-point attempts. In his one game, Chris Naggar made one field goal and made one of two extra-point attempts.
All of those misses contributed to Cleveland’s lousy record over the last season plus but so did their opponents kicking abilities. Whoever the Browns play barely misses:
Browns opps are now 35-37 on FG since 2021. Teams simply don't miss kicks against Cleveland.
— Scoops (@ejmaroun) October 10, 2022
York missed as many FG yesterday as Browns opponents have in the last 22 games.
When playing the Browns, opposing kickers are 3.3% more accurate than Justin Tucker is in his career.
Maroun does a good job of putting the numbers in perspective by using Justin Tucker as a reference point.
In many ways, it has to be chalked up to luck. Blocked field goals are so rare that only 13 teams got even one last season.
While it often feels like the NFL is against Cleveland, in general, it is hard not to notice that even “lady luck” seems to not be fond of the team by the lake. If the Browns continue to be in tight games but we start to see field goals more in line with the league average rate of success (84% this year), maybe that will be the sign that luck is finally on the team’s side.
Are you surprised how successful teams have been kicking field goals against the Browns?
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