VJCPatriot

Going into halftime - the Jets felt pretty good about themselves being down only 14-10 after being thoroughly outplayed by the Pats in the first half. The difference - icing the kicker. The Pats would have had 17 points, since Gostkowski made the first kick. But he was iced by the Jets' coach alert use of a timeout. He missed the second attempt much to tubby Rex' pleasure.

Near the end of the second half, the Jets kicker was about to kick the ball with 5 seconds left on the clock. You've got to wonder why the Pats didn't ice the Jets kicker at that point since that had happened to their own kicker. The Jets iced Gostkowski and it worked to make him miss the kick. Being up 17-7 is a big difference mentally between only being ahead 14-10. Even if the score is 14-7, at least the Jets don't feel good about scoring two drives in a row to end the half. That built up their confidence.

Although the tactic of icing the kicker is purely mental it seems to work. For example in the Texans game in overtime, the coach, Kubiak, iced the Redskins kicker. The guy made the first kick and missed the second one. Texans went on to win that game. So were our coaches asleep at the switch? Why didn't you ice their kicker, BB?

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letekro

Please God.......




















.....make it stop.

aluminum seats

If I remember correctly, the Pats had a delay of game penalty--the Jets didn't call a TO.

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VJCPatriot

I think you're right. Ok I remembered that part wrong. Gost had to kick a 5 yard longer field goal. We should have used a timeout to prevent the penalty from happening then. Who's watching the play clock? And the Pats still could have iced the Jets kicker before the end of the half.

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Wolfpack

I've seen the tactic of icing the kicker fail just as many times as it has succeeded. The Raiders tried to ice Vinatieri in January, 2002. How'd that work out for them?

lostjumper

What are you talking about? The patriots got a delay of game penalty because their special teams are unable to get on the field and get a kick off in 40 seconds. They iced themselves. The Jets and Ryan had nothing to do with it.

emoney_33

Aside from the fact that there were no actual "icing the kicker" timeouts, I just want to point out that I doubt "icing the kicker" has any factual evidence as being useful. In order for "icing the kicker" to be useful you have to assume that the probability of success on the 2nd kick is drastically lower than the 1st kick, which I don't think it is.

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Ice_Ice_Brady

Why would the kicker feel any pressure? The Patriots already blew a field goal from a shorter distance, the Jets were badly outplayed and this was just a few bonus points, and it was a long field goal that not many expected him to make. This wasn't a 38-yard to send the game into OT.

aluminum seats

I think a little clarification is needed here. "Icing the kicker" has been around forever--taking a timeout so the kicker has to "think" about the kick. Any decent kicker should welcome the time on the field to gauge the wind or whatever.

The last couple of years there's been this new thing of a TO right before the ball is snapped so the kicker kicks the ball, then has to do it again. It works sometimes, and sometimes it backfires (kicker misses the first, makes the second) and other times it makes no difference. So who knows.

For the record, I hate when those TOs are called, whichever way it goes. It's annoying.

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"So I'm going to throw myself against the wall...
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alamo

Seems to me saying "icing the kicker seems to work" is wrong. It usually makes no difference and sometimes backfires. The fact that it "worked" for the Texans yesterday is anecdotal.

My guess is the statistics for a second kick would have about the same % as the first kick. So if a kick gets made 80% of the type typically, then 4 of 5 times the first kick gets made and then occasionally (1 of 5 times) the second doesn't. In the case where the first kick is missed (1 of 5) then the second usually gets made (4 of 5) and the tactic "backfires". Though it's mainly due to typical kicking odds rather than "icing the kicker".

Because noone tracks kicks which don't count, I doubt there has ever been a real study done though.