Does Icing the Field Goal Kicker Work in the NFL?
During the 2022 National Football League Wild Card weekend, the Jacksonville Jaguars overcame a 27–0 deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers 31–30 on a game-winning, 36-yard field goal by Riley Patterson. While the comeback by the Jaguars is a statistical feat on its own, the Chargers’ head coach Brandon Staley may have cost his team one last chance to win the game by a rather curious decision. Instead of using his team’s final timeout with over 20 seconds remaining, which would have forced the Jaguars to run another play (following a play in which they ran for a two yard loss), he held on to that final timeout. On the other side of the field, the Jaguars’ head coach, Doug Pederson, elected to let the play clock run down to three seconds, called a timeout, and sent out Riley Patterson to attempt a game-winning walk-off 36-yard field goal. And just before Patterson attempted his kick, Staley called his final timeout.
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