NEW ORLEANS — On paper, Super Bowl LIX is setting up to be one of the most evenly matched games of all-time. Even the oddsmakers are expecting a close game with the Kansas City Chiefs favored by just 1.5 points over the Philadelphia Eagles.
When you have a game that’s expected to be close, there’s a good chance that it could come down to a field goal, which is exactly what happened the last time these two teams played each other in the NFL’s biggest game. In Super Bowl LVII, Harrison Butker hit a 27-yard field goal with just eight seconds left to give Kansas City a 38-35 win.
Although Butker hit that kick, he did miss one earlier in the game and that’s because when it comes to kicking field goals in the Super Bowl, nothing is a given. The overall field goal percentage in Super Bowl history is just 75.4%. When you only look at attempts from 45 yards or longer, the percentage drops to 52.2, which essentially makes it a coin toss.
The Super Bowl is a high-powered pressure cooker that has gotten the best of many kickers throughout history. There’s a fine line between famous and infamous for kickers at the Super Bowl. For every Adam Vinatieri, there’s a Scott Norwood. If you make a big kick, you’re a hero forever, but if you miss the kick, you go down in infamy.
If this year’s Super Bowl comes down to a big kick, the Chiefs and Eagles will probably be feeling good about the guy they send out there. On the Eagles’ end, they have Jake Elliott, who is the fifth-most accurate kicker in NFL playoff history with a 95.7% hit rate. On the other hand, the Chiefs’ have Butker, who has hit 32 STRAIGHT postseason kicks, a stat that includes both extra points and field goals.
There are only 13 kickers in NFL history who have attempted at least 10 postseason field goals and made at least 90% of them and Butker and Elliott are both on that list. Basically, these are two of the most clutch…
..
