re: Cody Parkey's career

Kickers tend to be streaky. So while the overall percentage is often similar around the league, or in the case of Parkey, phenomenal, the bad streaks lose games and teams get antsy.

It’s also a thankless setup. The field goal is usually the result of a failed/stalled drive. The kicker is, in a sense, preserving a small portion of the hard work done to get close to the end zone. So when they miss it seems more acutely incompetent than the dropped pass, overthrow, etc on the same drive.

Anyway, this happens a lot.