Tag: Matt Ammendola

QB C.J. Stroud won’t blame K Matt Ammendola for Texans’ 24-21 loss to the Jaguars

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud knows that he won’t point the finger at K Matt Ammendola for the 24-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Don’t expect C.J. Stroud to point the finger.

The rookie quarterback declared he would not put the Houston Texans’ last play on the blame of kicker Matt Ammendola, who missed a 58-yard field goal that would have tied the game with 29 seconds remaining. Instead the Jacksonville Jaguars took a knee and 24-21 win out of NRG Stadium with first place in the AFC South.

“You can’t put the last play of the game, supposedly, or if it is or if it’s not, you can’t put the whole game on that situation,” Stroud told reporters after the game. “We’ve got to be cleaner and execute better in the first half. I feel like we came out the second half and moved the ball pretty well, but we have to play complementary football offense and defense. We have to help each other out.”

Stroud did his part, going 26-of-36 for 304 yards and two touchdowns. The No. 2 overall pick even rushed six times for 47 yards and a score.

“It’s tough to put it all on the kicker’s hand and everything. I think Matt has done a great job, and we have to put him in better situations,” Stroud said. “Maybe get closer or even go try to score a touchdown and win the game. A lot of different things that could happen and play out a different way.”

The Texans fall to 6-5 on the season, but maintain the No. 6 seed in the AFC wild-card race.

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The NFL’s Worst of the Week: Diontae Johnson, shotgun runs, bad Jets/Pats, Shawn Hochuli

This week’s Worst of the Week in the NFL included Diontae Johnson, Jared Goff, the Jets and Patriots, and of course, more horrible officiating!

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season.

Why Texans’ DeMeco Ryans may have chosen poorly with field goal against the Jaguars

Here are some answers as to why Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans going for the field goal was wrong, and not just because of the outcome.

Naturally the wrong decision can be gleaned by the fact it didn’t work. Clearly Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans should have gone for it on fourth-and-12 from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 39-yard line rather than send out kicker Matt Ammendola to attempt a 58-yard field goal.

According to Doug Farrar from the Touchdown Wire, the decision to put the game on the foot of a known quantity was suspect at best.

Ammendola did indeed nearly tie the game, but we have to look at the process here. Ammendola has been in the NFL since 2021. and New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Texans, he had never made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards. The last time he even attempted one was with the Jets in 2021 — in fact, he attempted three that season, and he missed them all.

Furthermore, if you go back to Ammendola’s career at Oklahoma State, he hadn’t made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards since 2017.

So, again, we have to wonder why.

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Going with Stroud isn’t typical second-guessing. Stroud had led the Texans with two game-winning drives entering Week 12. Albeit Ammendola was a key cog in the win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 10, the reality is Stroud’s heroics all season have placed Houston in the position to have a first place showdown with the Jaguars mean anything.

Ryans chose the proven commodity of a backup kicker’s leg over his No. 2 overall pick’s arm.

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Why the Texans’ game-ending field goal decision was absolutely wrong

Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans asked kicker Matt Ammendola to tie the Jaguars game. Here’s why that was the wrong decision.

There’s no question that Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans is on everybody’s short list for NFL Coach of the Year, but the first-year shot-caller made a curious decision at the end of his team’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston had the ball at the Jacksonville 39-yard line with fourth-and-12 and 34 seconds left in the game.

Instead of putting the ball in the hands of C.J. Stroud, who came into this game with one fourth-quarter touchdown as a passer and another fourth-down touchdown as a runner this season, Ryans made the call to have kicker Matt Amendola, on the roster after starting kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn was placed on injured reserve with a quadricep injury earlier this month, attempt a 58-yard field goal.

Here was the result.

Ammendola did indeed nearly tie the game, but we have to look at the process here. Ammendola has been in the NFL since 2021. and New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Texans, he had never made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards. The last time he even attempted one was with the Jets in 2021 — in fact, he attempted three that season, and he missed them all.

Furthermore, if you go back to Ammendola’s career at Oklahoma State, he hadn’t made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards since 2017.

So, again, we have to wonder why.

See the best reactions from Texans K Matt Ammendola’s 58-yard missed FG

See the best reactions from Texans K Matt Ammendola’s 58-yard missed field goal that handed the Jacksonville Jaguars a 24-21 win in Week 12.

Football is a game of inches, and Houston Texans kicker Matt Ammendola certainly displayed that truism in Week 12 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

On a game-tying 58-yard field goal, Ammendola’s kick hit the crossbar and bounced into the end zone, rendering the Texans losers 24-21 to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 12 at NRG Stadium.

Twitter was full of takes and remarks surrounding the Texans’ heartbreaking loss. Here are some of the best posts.

Jaguars survive as Texans’ 58-yard field goal attempt hits crossbar

The Jaguars came so close to forcing overtime against the Texans. Ouch

Talk about a game of inches.

The Jacksonville Jaguars came away with a 24-21 victory on Sunday over the Houston Texans as AFC South teams dueled.

The Texans had a chance to force overtime and called on Matt Ammendola to attempt a field goal from 58 yards.

Ammendola, whose career-long was 56 yards in high school, drilled the attemp that was straight and on-line.

However, it hit the crossbar and bounced away and Jacksonville was 8-3.

It was the second miss of the game for Ammendola.

Texans sign K Matt Ammendola to active roster

The Houston Texans have signed kicker Matt Ammendola to the active roster for Week 11 among other roster moves.

The Houston Texans have made five roster moves as they gear up to face the Arizona Cardinals Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time from NRG Stadium.

The first two moves the Texans made were to sign kicker Matt Ammendola and linebacker Garret Wallow to the active roster. Ammendola hit the game-winning 38-yard field goal to give Houston a 30-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals last week. Wallow has yet to be active for any game this season.

Houston also used their two standard elevations from the practice squad to bring up receiver Steven Sims and rookie safety Brandon Hill.

The Texans placed safety Grayland Arnold on injured reserve.

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Texans topple Bengals on last-second field goal by Matt Ammendola

The Texans rock the Bengals on a last-second field goal

C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans pulled off a stunner after almost giving away a victory.

Matt Ammendola, who was elevated to the Texans’ roster on Saturday, kicked a 38-yard field goal to give Houston a 30-27 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals trailed 27-17 in the fourth quarter but scored 10 straight points to tie the game.

The Houston defense stiffened when it appeared Cincinnati was going in for a touchdown that could have given the Bengals the lead.

After the Bengals got an Evan McPherson field goal to tie the game at 27, Stroud led a 6-play, 55-yard drive that culminated with Ammendola’s field goal.

The Bengals and Ravens both are 5-4, which is surprising for both teams.

Packers sign 2 players, including K Matt Ammendola, to practice squad

The Packers signed K Matt Ammendola and TE Austin Allen to the practice squad on Tuesday.

The Green Bay Packers signed kicker Matt Ammendola and tight end Austin Allen to the team’s practice squad on Tuesday.

In Ammendola, the Packers will get an experienced kicker who can provide insurance behind Mason Crosby. Ramiz Ahmed, who was elevated from the practice squad last week, was injured during pre-game and didn’t play, necessitating the need to add another kicker.

Over two NFL seasons, Ammendola – an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State – has made 18 of 26 field goals and 19 of 21 extra points while delivering touchbacks on 61.3 percent of his kickoffs. He played two games for the Kansas City Chiefs (Weeks 2-3) and two games for the Arizona Cardinals (Weeks 5-6) this season. In Week 5, he missed what would have been the game-tying field goal from 43 yards out against the Philadelphia Eagles. Last season, Ammendola made 13 of 19 field goals for the New York Jets.

Allen (6-8, 253) is an undrafted free agent out of Nebraska. He spent time on the practice squad of the New York Giants as a rookie last season but was released by the team at final roster cuts in August of this year. During his final collegiate season, Allen caught 38 passes for 602 yards, setting new school records in each category for a tight end, and he was named the Big Ten’s tight end of the year.

At the 2021 NFL Scouting Combine, Allen ran the 40-yard dash in 4.83 seconds, finished the three-cone drill in 7.0 seconds, hit 34″ in the vertical leap and covered 10-1 in the broad jump. His Relative Athletic Score (RAS) is 8.08 out of 10.0.

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Matt Ammendola to kick for Cardinals vs. Seahawks as Matt Prater out again

Kliff Kingsbury said it was unlikely that Matt Prater would be able to play in Week 6 and is still confident Ammendola’s abilities.

The Arizona Cardinals relied on Matt Ammendola on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles to kick in place of Matt Prater, who injured his right hip. After missing a field goal at the end of the game that could have sent the game into overtime, Ammendola will get another shot to help the team.

Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters Wednesday, “It doesn’t look like (Prater) will make it this week.”

With Prater expected to miss the game on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, it means Ammendola will again handle the kicking duties.

After the missed kick Sunday, the Cardinals did not bring in any other kickers and even signed him to the active roster from the practice squad as one of several roster moves the team announced Wednesday.

Kingsbury still has confidence in Ammendola despite missing the 43-yard field goal against the Eagles.

“Like I said last week, we’ve seen him kick well in practice and he’s kicked well in games in this league, so we’re past it and onto this week,” he said.

Kingsbury is hopeful that Prater will be able to kick in the team’s Week 7 game against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night.

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