The Kicking Mystique of Heinz Field- A Fan poll

I can remember long debates on whether or not Jeff Reed should have been kept by the Steelers as long as he was. Lets face while he was accurate inside the forty yard range his leg strength left something to be desired. Now not everyone can be a 60 yard plus kicker but after the off the field issues that Reed had, the debate raged anew. Those in favor of keeping him used the fact that he knew how to kick at Heinz Field as teh sole factor in their desire to keep him, those opposed said that it simply wasn't enough.

So now several years removed from the debate the question can be asked was too much made of Reed's ability to kick at Heinz Field. There are weather factors and the condition of the turf does contribute to the mystique of Heinz Field but since new kickers have proved they can consistently make field goals at Heinz with enough time spent there, the whole knowing how to kick seems played out. Visiting kickers do struggle but is that a combination of physical and mental factors or one or the other? Is the mystique alive and well?

 

Yes. I think you said it best when you talked about visiting kickers. Maybe not so much for Steelers kickers who practice and play here, but it's definitely alive and well for visitors.

 

Maybe the question should be (ideally) would you want a kicker who is 99% inside 40 yards and 5% outside 45, or one who is 80% inside 40 and 30% outside 45.
(Those numbers are made up. The idea is giving up a sure thing to increase the long-shot odds.)

Are there stats to support the myth? What I would like to know is the Steeler's kickers home compared to away, and how opposing kickers do at Heinz vs. elsewhere. (The dome home teams would have to be adjusted, somehow.)

 

wind, field conditions, cold, ghosts of dead former steelers, all the fans on one side of the stadium blowing at the same time. I'd like to think that all contributes.

remember our turf in years past doesn't make for good footing at times. the plant foot could have a lot to do with it. 3 rivers had a way about it too. I think they used to say look at the flags on top of the goal posts and kick the other direction or something like that. the wind swirled in there. closing the open end with more seats could change the wind factor.

 

It's seems the South end zone still makes it tough as all heck to kick, which is the open end zone. Early in the year kickers don't seems as bothered, due to a better field surface, and not as bad weather. But, I think it's still gets in some kickers heads. We shall see if the need addition of seats, after this season, changes as of that. To me Suisham has done a good of job as Reed did if not better.

 

Not sure what mystique people are talking about. Opposing kickers were 28 of 31 including 9 of 12 from over 40 yards in 2013.

 

The longest field goal ever made there was from 52. Think about some of the huge legged kickers that have come through. Also that 52 is by Reed who did have a huge leg but didn't get many chances to prove it.

 

As a Steelers fan, I want to say that there is still a kicking mystique, but in reality, I'd say there probably isn't.

 

Don't know where you are getting those numbers, but looking back at the 2013 schedule I see opposing teams attempting only 4 kicks of >40 yards and making 3 of them. All 3 made were in the 40-49 range. The only attempt over 50 yards was a missed 52 yarder. This was also the only attempt of >50 all season.

Including Suisham who attempted 3 field goals of longer than 40 yards (and made them all), there were only 7 total kicks at Heinz in 2013 that were >40 yards with 6 of them being good kicks.

Seems like a really good percentage until you realize just how few attempts there are of >40 yards at Heinz. For comparison, in the NFL there were a total of 456 kicks last year of greater than 40 yards in 256 total games. Thats an average of 1.78 kicks per game of over 40 yards. At Heinz there were 7 in 8 games for a total of just .88 attempts per game.

Also consider that 5 of those 7 attempts (all good) occurred in the first 3 games at Heinz with only 2 attempts during the last 5 home games. The last of those 3 games was played on October 20th. In other words 5 of those 7 attempts were before the weather turns sh*tty in Pittsburgh.

Also the lone attempt of >50 yards (and one of the two attempts past Oct 20th) was a last second before the half desperation attempt by the Dolphins.

So all things considered, I'd say that yes the kicking mystique IS alive and WELL in Pittsburgh.

 

Exactly. Fair weather days vs not so fair weather days make a huge difference. Not to say that you can't have a nice calm winded day in December, but.... with Bobbybiz.

 

Actually I got the stats from ESPN. Here they are:

[TABLE="class: tablehead"]
[TR="class: colhead"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 9"]FIELD GOALS[/TD]
[TD="colspan: 3"]EXTRA POINTS[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: colhead"]
[TD="align: left"]TEAM[/TD]
[TD]FGM[/TD]
[TD]FGA[/TD]
[TD]PCT[/TD]
[TD]LONG[/TD]
[TD]1-19[/TD]
[TD]20-29[/TD]
[TD]30-39[/TD]
[TD]40-49[/TD]
[TD]50+[/TD]
[TD]XPM[/TD]
[TD]XPA[/TD]
[TD]PCT[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: oddrow"]
[TD="align: left"]Steelers[/TD]
[TD]30[/TD]
[TD]32[/TD]
[TD]93.8[/TD]
[TD]48[/TD]
[TD]0-0[/TD]
[TD]9-9[/TD]
[TD]13-15[/TD]
[TD]8-8[/TD]
[TD]0-0[/TD]
[TD]39[/TD]
[TD]39[/TD]
[TD]100.0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: evenrow"]
[TD="align: left"]Opponents[/TD]
[TD]28[/TD]
[TD]31[/TD]
[TD]90.3[/TD]
[TD]54[/TD]
[TD]1-1[/TD]
[TD]8-8[/TD]
[TD]10-10[/TD]
[TD]8-10[/TD]
[TD]1-2[/TD]
[TD]38[/TD]
[TD]39[/TD]
[TD]97.4[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

If you go back through the last 4 seasons, the Steelers have actually missed 4 more field goals than the opponents. If there is a mystique, it hurts the Steelers kickers just as much.

 

Oops! Just realized these are Home and Away stats - crawling back under my rock now.

 

Nah it's all good. I actually spent 20 min and went thru each game manually and then saw your post and thought for a second that I wasted my time.

 

Record longest field goal

The longest field goal ever made at Heinz field was 54 yards. It was on October 19, 2013 and kicked by Jarod Brown of Old Dominion University.