The Vikings have been the victim of game-costing kicker play for quite some time.
I won’t talk about Gary Anderson, Blair Walsh or Daniel Carlson anymore other than mentioning them here. I think it’s safe to say most Vikings fans don’t want to remember that anymore.
But there is a new kicker wound that is too fresh not to talk about. Dan Bailey missed three field goals and one extra point as the Buccaneers defeated the Vikings on Sunday. Those misses cost Minnesota 10 points in a game it needed to win pretty badly.
If you add that up and the Buccaneers still score 26, the Vikings would have lost had Bailey hit all his kicks. However, Tampa Bay very well could have scored fewer points if Bailey made his kicks, due to different field position throughout the game.
According to EdjSports, Bailey’s kicks made a huge impact. The outlet reported that the Vikings lost around 27% in win probability (H/T Sam Ekstrom of Zone Coverage).
Bailey’s field goal percentage lowered to 66.7% on the year. His extra point percentage is at 87.1%. Bailey’s poor numbers can rationalize the Vikings moving on from him. Whether Minnesota comes to that conclusion or not remains to be seen.
