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+---- Thread: *Defining Match Winning Kicks and Seeing Who Has the Most (/showthread.php?tid=28099)
*Defining Match Winning Kicks and Seeing Who Has the Most - .simo - 12-03-2020
Hi all, Simo here. So I've been thinking a lot lately about kickers and in particular kicks that can really make a difference at the pointy end of the game. One thing about kickers is they are always expected to make the kick 100% of the time really. Every time they step up to kick an extra point or field goal the coach and team is already kinda putting those points on the score boards and it's a disappointment if they don't quite make it there. So with this expectation it can make it a difficult job. Add on top of this let's say a close game, like really close, two points in it. Let's add only twenty two seconds left in the game. Now let's add a bit of swirly wind, and the field goal is from forty seven yards out. Let's add a crazy home fan base that is expecting this kick to go through if if it doesn't it will ruin the start of the week for every person in the stadium. This is suddenly a hugely difficult kick but a similar kick to this we have had quite a few times over the twenty five seasons of the Inter/National Simulation Football League so far. With some help of Infinite I'll be taking a look at some individual kicks and some kickers in this media to see who is might have the greatest kick in football history, who is more like an automatic car cause there is no clutch and who was the best in the league to step up in the moment and the team could count on them and their BDE to get the job done.
For this media the criteria for kicks discussed are field goals kicked in the last 4 minutes or overtime in a game. This graph below shows every kick that falls under that criteria over our twenty five seasons so far. In general it seems to be fairly even really with a few outliers. It has spiked recently which is probably to be expected with a couple of extra games and also adding more teams to the competition also. Apart from this we seem to have a few outlier seasons like S12 on the high side with a few others to a lesser extent but also S1, S5, S13 and S15 all having a really low number of these kicks. The recent spike also might have something to do with a great quality of kicker that has come into the league recently which we will get to in a moment. This graph is all kicks within those parameters though but as I dig further down I'll be only talking about kicks when behind, kicks that carry a cost for missing.
![[Image: 6Kp1Y3AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/758449840332996620/783133201139761172/6Kp1Y3AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC.png)
Another set of numbers I have to talk about is these kicks but divided up by the kicker. I am a newer user to this league but you can't be a kicker around here for long without hearing the names of Turkleton or Fulture so I was not surprised at all to see both of these two sitting up the towards the of this list, though there is a few others people I hadn't heard of before this but some absolute greats of this craft. I'll get into this a bit more in depth soon to see if this is a product of the number of opportunities or how clutch they really were. Below here is the list that is just number of kicks made. Any kickers still currently playing I will put in bold and note their season so it's easy to see who can still improve their position.
Turkleton, T. - 8
Donaldson, N. - 7
Jackson, D. - 6
Prohaska, H. - 6
Fulture, K. - 6
Hunt, K. (S23) - 5
Smalls, D. (S21) - 5
Banana, S. (S20) - 5
Blewitt, I. - 5
Crisco, A. - 5
Leg, P. - 4
Harris, Jr, S. - 4
Harris, S. - 4
McDairmid, M. (S22) - 4
Meoff, B. - 4
Forfeit, N. - 4
Madlad, B. - 3
Dasistwirklichseinnachname, A. (S15) - 3
Lombardi, J. - 3
Brand, F. - 3
McCormick, M. - 3
Anderson, A. - 3
Fencik, J. (S25) - 2
Powers, V. (S20) - 2
Kokot, B. (S24) - 1
Small, J. (S22) - 1
Sidekick, S. (S22) - 1
Louis, L. (S21) - 1
Jay-Jaymison, J. (S21) - 1
Espinosa, D. - 1
Frost, A. - 1
Ronaldo, C. - 1
Clutch, C. - 1
Kicksit, B. - 1
Frost, B. - 1
PhastBawls, D. (S23) - 1
Bobby, K. - 1
QB, P (S22) - 0
Looking at this I have four names of current players that I think is worth talking about...
Karmichael Hunt, Dougie Smalls and Silver Banana: These three kind of all are getting thrown in together in this spot. The only thing to separate them here is their regression season which is the tie breaker I have had to come up with. Any of these three though could be in with a change to break the record and knock off Turkleton at the top. Karmichael only being in the league for two seasons so far though has set a cracking pace. If he played out his days at this pace he would end up on thirty which just is ridiculous. Doubt he gets close to that but number one on this list is a real possibility.
Matthew McDairmid: Slightly off the pace of the other three current kickers in the league but still with only one less kick and only a S22 regression season. If things go his way a little there is definitely the chance for him to continue to climb up this list.
I really think we will see a change at the top of the tree here really soon and one of the four mentioned players will take the spot there. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it and hope to keep people updated at the end of every season.
Now that we have looked at the number of total clutch kicks made let's have a look as some percentages. Obviously it is easier to kick 100% if you kick one out of one but we'll take a look and see how great some of the players were that had a larger volume.
My sorting order for these is by number of kicks made, percentage of kicks made and lastly if it's the same my regression season so if they have more seasons left to potentially break the record they go further up inside the same tier.
Turkleton, T. - 8/9 - 89%
Straight up top of the pops and Turkleton kicks eight from nine attempts of these clutch game swinging kicks. That is impressive now matter what way you swing it. Nine times in his career he was counted on to be the man for his team with field goals and in almost every situation he delivered in the moment. In particular there are a few kicks I want to highlight here from Turkleton.
- In season one Turkleton bombed home a 55 yard field goal at Arizona with twenty eight seconds on the clock in a tied game to give his team the win. Right from the start Turkeleton was delivering for his team.
- In the very next season and week one of that Turkleton hits home a 57 yard field goal with only twenty one seconds on the clock but this time just to tie it up and send it to overtime, but he did his job. Clearly he didn't get another shot at it or we would be talking about that kick also.
- A few weeks later in season two still he kicked a 50 yard attempt against Philadelphia in overtime to win the game for Baltimore.
- The one miss we also have to talk about. Season three against Orange County, two second on the clock and down by two points also. This kick to win the game and Turkleton misses. A point in favour of him in all of this though is that the kick was from 54 yards out so it isn't the worst miss to have but it would have hurt at the time.
Call him the mailman cause he always fucken delivers! Donaldson with a perfect seven kicks from as many attempts. While seven from seven will always be impressive especially with the pressure of the situations, Donaldson has also been blessed with a fairly good smattering of opportunities. Three kicks in the 20s and a kick from 30 yards also. The longest he kicked was from 45 yards. To be fair to him though the two long ones that were at 45 yards were both walk off winners in overtime so that is definitely some BDE from Donaldson here. Four of his kicks also were to put his team ahead on the scoreboard. Would have been lovely for the coach to know when you get in a tight spot and you sent your kicker out they are coming back to the sideline after banging three more points on the scoreboard.
Jackson, D. - 6/6 - 100%
Jackson with his six from six, while still even one of these kicks is impressive, looking at the numbers this might be the easiest set of kicks of anyone on this list. The longest kick of the set is from 36 yards while the shortest was from 20. Similar to Donaldson, here we have two kicks that were walk off field goals in overtime which is always a lovely thing to see. Unlike Donaldson though five of the six kicks here are winners with the games only having a point or two in them before this kick. There was on game against Baltimore in season 12 that tied it all up and sent it to overtime.
Prohaska, H. - 6/6 - 100%
Looking at the kicks for Prohaska, it is just incredible. Six attempts, six successful, five winners and one to send it to overtime, and most of them were from a fair way out. I'm going to try and make some sort of table here to show it off a bit so we can see all six kicks because even the timing of when they happened in games is amazing.
Season - Week - Qtr - Time - Outcome
21 15 5 12:22 46 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Won 27-24
22 13 4 00:22 39 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Won 24-21
23 4 4 00:06 55 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Won 24-21
23 14 4 00:04 48 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Sent to over time 37-37
23 14 5 12:23 40 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Won 40-37
24 2 4 00:04 24 yard FG by Prohaska, H. is good. Won 12-10
Dead set look at those kicks. Four of them are final plays of the game and one of the other may as well be. Some of the kick distances are impressive too with the 24 yarder aside. A 55 yarder to win the game for your team with seconds left. That's what you grow up dreaming about.
Fulture, K. - 6/8 - 75%
Here we are all the way down at number five before we find a kicker that has missed multiple kicks. The two misses here though did come on 41 and a 56 yard kicks so definitely now any gimmes here by any stretch. To highlight few kicks we have the following.
- In season 13 when playing for Philadelphia we saw Fulture kick a 50 yard bomb when down by 1 point against Yellowknife to put his team ahead by 2 points with only twenty eight seconds to play in the game.
- Another clutch kick came in season 17 playing for Chicago and Fulture kicked a 40 yard attempt in overtime to win the game for the Butchers.
Karmichael Hunt. I can tell there is something special about this kicker. Nah but for real it feels bloody odd trying to write nice things about myself. Only having played two season so far I was kinda shocked to see myself this high up the rankings. While these kicks haven't really been the hardest for a kicker to make I do have a couple of games I want to talk a bit about.
- In season 24 when I played for Philly, everyone knows we sucked finishing 3-13, but one of these games is one of my favourite sim league memories. Playing against Yellowknife in week 12, at this point we had only won a single game all season. Grim times. Getting down towards the end of the game and with eighty two seconds to go I managed to kick a 41 yard field goal to tie it all up and end up sending it to overtime.
- For the next kick to talk about we stay in the same game cause only a few minutes later we have a drive in overtime but it stalls out giving myself the opportunity for a walk off field goal and I bloody nail it sending us home winners for the second time this season. For real though this was such a fun moment in the locker room. We loved all of the three wins we got that season but this one was extra special. That night then I got drunk AF and wrote a drunken aussie slang love letter in the Philly LR which is still around somewhere but that is probably left in the past.
- Now we move over to Berlin, well actually New York because they were who we played in round one of season 25. Two expansion teams facing off against each other and it went down to the wire just as it would have been hoped when they put these two up against each other. With fourty one seconds to go though I was able to pot over a 33 yard field goal to help give Berlin their first ever win.
Here we are at the second of this trio of currently active kickers sitting on five clutch kicks. I was just thinking how in looking around these I hadn't seen yet what Karmichael had done where you kick to tie up the game and then kick again to win it in over time and then the very next kicker I start to write about has done the exact same and also in season 24.
- Playing against Baltimore Smalls kicked a 36 yard field goal with just under two minutes left on the clock. Clearly not much happened after that because we end up playing a 5th quarter in which Smalls manages to do even better and kicks a 38 yard field goal to win the game for the Wraiths.
Looking at the kicks here for Silver and damn they are...bananas! No but for real in all 5 of his kicks all of them were to put his team ahead and win. In season 24 there was an over time kick but apart from that they were all late in the 4th quarter. The most impressive kick of the lot here is a 54 yard kick against Colorado back in season 22. Aside from there there isn't anything that super stands out other than someone who always get's it done.
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