Outrageous Stats Prove Week 5 Was Worst Ever for NFL Kickers

Week 5 of the 2021 NFL season was a stark reminder of how bad kicking has become at the highest level of the sport.

Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker kicked an NFL record 66-yard game-winning field goal two weeks ago.

He's a future Hall of Famer and the greatest kicker in league history.

The league is not full of Justin Tuckers.

Week 5 kicking across the NFL isn't going to the Hall of Fame, but it's already been inducted into the Hall of Shame. It was that bad.

Thursday night football kicked off the week, and little did we know at the time Seattle Seahawks kicker Matt Gay's missed PAT (point after touchdown) early in the game was filled with foreshadowing.

Sunday should've had more two-point conversion attempts because extra points were as reliable as Cookie Monster trying to fast inside a Great American Cookies.

As the late great Billy Mays would say, "But wait! There's more!"

Not satisfied with a tied record, Indianapolis Colts kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, who missed a potential game-winning 46-yard field goal at the end of regulation, missed a PAT earlier in his team's loss, setting the NFL record for most missed extra points in a single week.

The Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals played a thrilling overtime game, that only reached OT due to an abundance of poor kicking.

Green Bay's Mason Crosby and Cincinnati's Evan McPherson missed 6 total kicks (5 FGs, 1 PAT), including potential game-winners.

Ironically, the game ended on a Crosby field goal late in overtime.

The New Orleans Saints, desperate for kicking help while Wil Lutz is on injured reserve, released struggling Aldrick Rosas last week and signed Cody Parkey, a kicker best known for the "double doink" miss at the end of a playoff loss while he was with the Chicago Bears.

How did Parkey do in his debut with the Saints?

Fortunately, he didn't have to lineup for a field goal, but of 5 extra-point attempts, he missed two of them.

Perhaps Parkey was in some pain, as today he was placed on IR.

For those who enjoy pain, here is a look at some of the missed PATs from week 5 (with the exception of Monday night).

And no, there weren't 21 misses, though it felt like it.

Teams on the wrong end of those misses aren't getting a kick out of this, but the kicker waiver wire may be more busy this week than any other in league history.