Tag: Dan Bailey

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer continues to back K Dan Bailey

Despite Dan Bailey’s recent misses, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has a lot of confidence in him.

The Vikings have re-entered playoff contention this season, but the team lost a very important game against the Buccaneers in Week 14.

To make matters worse, Tampa Bay didn’t exactly rout Minnesota. The Vikings very well could have won that game — if it wasn’t for their special teams.

Kicker Dan Bailey missed three field goals and one extra point, en route to a 26-14 loss on Sunday.

Yes, yes, if Bailey hit all his kicks and the Buccaneers still score 26, the Vikings lose. But the field position battle is important. It’s within the realm of possibility that Tampa Bay would have scored less than 26 points had Bailey made his kicks.

Despite the recent misses, Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer is backing his kicker, saying he has a lot of confidence in Bailey.

“He’s kicked good this week. I talked to him a couple times this week about certain things,” Zimmer said, via Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune. “He’s a very even-keeled guy that has a history of being a terrific kicker in this league.”

Bailey has now had two games in a row where he missed important field goals. Against the Jaguars, he missed what would have been a potential game-winner. He also went 1-3 on extra points. The Vikings will hope he bounces back, but if he doesn’t, he might cost them an awful lot in regards to postseason chances.

NFC North standings after Week 14

While 1st place is locked up, the rest of the division is still in flux. Here is how the NFC North looks with just 3 games left this season.

After 14 weeks, the NFC North has a champion.

The Green Bay Packers secured the division title following their win over the Detroit Lions, giving them back-to-back titles under head coach Matt LaFleur. The Packers are now the second team in the NFC to clinch a playoff berth, along with the New Orleans Saints. The division title also ensures another home playoff game for the Packers come January.

Although first place is locked up, the rest of the division is still in flux. Here is how the NFC North looks with just three games to go in the season.

Stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ Week 14 loss to the Buccaneers

See the stock up, stock down from the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Vikings needed a lot to go their way against the Buccaneers.

That did not happen. The team had missed field goals, costly penalties, poor offensive and defensive line play and other simple mistakes that cost Minnesota the Week 14 game.

If the Vikings want Week 15 to go differently, the team will have to bounce back in several different areas. Sure, Minnesota is playing Chicago this week, but the Bears still have a good defense and still have something to lose.

The Vikings need to assess what happened in the Buccaneers game. Here is the stock up, stock down report:

The good, the bad and ugly from the Vikings’ loss to the Buccaneers

See the good, the bad and the ugly from the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Minnesota had a crucial Week 14 game against Tampa Bay. Unfortunately for the Vikings, the team had more bad and ugly than good.

Special teams miscues, costly penalties and the offensive line struggling in the passing game led to the Vikings dropping the game and moving to 6-7 on the year.

Before it plays Chicago in Week 15, Minnesota will have to assess what needs to change in order to keep its playoff hopes alive. To do so, it’s important to look at what worked and what really did not.

So here is the good, the bad and ugly from the Tampa Bay game:

Report: Vikings K Dan Bailey’s misses lowered Minnesota’s win probability by 27%

Vikings kicker Dan Bailey’s misses lowered the Minnesota Vikings’ win probability by 27%.

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.

Minnesota Vikings vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Everything we know

See the game recap from the Minnesota Vikings loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

This is a Vikings offense that struggled earlier in the year. Minnesota was one-dimensional and Kirk Cousins had some of his worst games in a Vikings uniform.

The offense found its stride later in the year. Same goes for the defense.

Once a weak spot of the Vikings, the defensive unit improved in the pass rush and eased the pressure of their young defensive back corps.

Minnesota has strung together important victories to get back into the playoff conversation, but the team still has its share of sloppiness in certain phases of the game.

The Buccaneers put those weak spots on display Sunday in Tampa Bay. In what was the Vikings’ most important game up until this point, kicker Dan Bailey missed three field goals and one extra point, Minnesota had its usual costly turnovers and the Buccaneers took advantage of good field position to win.

Vikings’ Dan Bailey having a day to forget

The Vikings’ Dan Bailey is having an off-day in Tampa Bay … to say the least

The Minnesota Vikings’ kicker, Dan Bailey, is having an off-day against Tampa Bay to say the least.

The veteran has missed three field goals and an extra point.

The third came on a fourth-and-goal from the Tampa Bay 28 as Kirk Cousins and the office went backward.

4th & Goal at TB 28

(9:04 – 4th) D.Bailey 46 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-A.DePaola, Holder-B.Colquitt

Earlier  …

4th & 15 at TB 36

(4:42 – 2nd) D.Bailey 54 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-A.DePaola, Holder-B.Colquitt

4th & 13 at TB 17

(9:34 – 2nd) D.Bailey 36 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-A.DePaola, Holder-B.Colquitt

2nd & Goal at TB 1

(14:17 – 2nd) R.Hill reported in as eligible. D.Cook left end for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN. D.Bailey extra point is No Good, Wide Left, Center-A.DePaola, Holder-B.Colquitt

 

Vikings kicker Dan Bailey talks about his missed kicks vs. the Jaguars

Do you think Minnesota Vikings kicker Dan Bailey will bounce back against the Buccaneers?

The Vikings have found plenty of new and creative ways to struggle on special teams this season.

One of the latest instances? The field goal unit against the Jaguars. Kicker Dan Bailey went 1-3 on extra points. He also missed a potential game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter.

However, Bailey would redeem himself by hitting the game-winning kick in overtime. But still, by most accounts, it was a day to forget for Bailey, who is normally a very good kicker.

He talked about the misses with reporters recently:

“Yeah, it was just a strange deal,” Bailey told reporters, via the Vikings’ Twitter account. “I was really inconsistent into the ball from a timing standpoint. I actually had a pretty good pregame, I thought. [I] went into it everything feeling good, feeling confident. … “I don’t know if I can really put a finger on it other than it just obviously wasn’t up to the standard. It was pretty out of character for me to got out there and do that.”

Bailey said he had a good week of practice. The Vikings got away with a victory over the Jaguars, but they might not have the same luck against a better Buccaneers team. In that case, Minnesota needs a bounce-back performance from Bailey.

“A little embarrassed by it, to be honest, but it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to move on and try to go knock the next ones through,” Bailey said.

Vikings K Dan Bailey thinks players underestimate how weird it will be without fan noise

The Vikings kicker said players are underestimating just how different things will be in 2020 without fans.

It hasn’t been announced league-wide yet, but it’s almost a certainty the NFL will play without fans in 2020.

For fans, watching on TV will probably seem the same. We’ll likely hear some fan noise cranked into the stadium and on TV, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference.

For players, though, they’ll be able to tell pretty quickly when they look around and see no fans making that noise.

Vikings kicker Dan Bailey said that it’s going to be quite a surprise to a lot of players.

“Not having the crowd noise is going to a lot more weird than we think,” Bailey said via the Pioneer Press. “It’s going to be different. Fans make up so much of the experience of the game.”

For the kicker position especially, I can imagine it will be quite distracting when he’ll be able to hear everything defenders are trying to say.

All PG-13 language, I’m sure.

CBS Sports ranks Dan Bailey as top-10 kicker heading into 2020

Bailey 27-for-29 on field goals last season, hitting at a 93.1% clip.

The Vikings have had some worries at kicker over the years.

With Dan Bailey on the roster, have they figured it out?

Perhaps. Bailey was 27-for-29 on field goals last season, hitting at a 93.1% clip. Let’s not forget, though, that before Bailey’s success in 2019, the Vikings gave up a fifth-round pick for Kaare Vedvik.

Spoiler alert: That did not work.

Over at CBS Sports, John Breech ranked the top-10 kickers in the NFL. Bailey appeared on the list at No. 7.

Here’s a bit of what Breech wrote about Bailey:

Bailey was so good last season that he didn’t miss a single field goal after Week 7 as he closed the year with 22 consecutive successful kicks, including the playoffs. Including 2019, Bailey has ranked as one of the NFL’s five most accurate kickers in four of his nine seasons, and he’s currently ranked as the sixth-most accurate kicker of all-time.

Of course, we know that things can change quickly in the NFL for a kicker. We’ve seen kickers, like Bailey, go from good to bad to great.

Bailey’s strong 2019 season landed him a three-year, $10 million extension with the Vikings this offseason.