Hey guys, this is RDay13. I am sure some of you saw the Seahawks Vikings game yesterday. I for one only saw part of it as I was busy, but heard about the potential game winning kick missed by Minnesota kicker Blair Walsh. I saw the highlights of the game this morning. Apparently, the Vikings' coach Mike Zimmer threw Walsh under the bus for the loss saying that he should have made it. A lot of fans are cracking down on Walsh for missing the field goal. Walsh himself was very disappointed and was found in the locker room sobbing for 15 minutes. I for one, don't think Walsh was the reason the Vikings lost this game. Obviously, if he had made it, they probably would have won, but the man scored all 9 of Minnesota's points. If the offense had converted one of those three drives, the Vikings would have won. The whole offense can be blamed for Minnesota's loss. However, I feel someone else needs to receive some blame. The holder, which was punter John Locke, was holding the football's laces towards Walsh on the kicks yesterday. Apparently that adds more spin to the ball, making it harder for successful kicks. He came out and said that it was his fault because he didn't rotate the ball away from Walsh. Walsh denied that Locke was the reason he missed however, as he had made a 48-yarder earlier in the game with the laces facing him. Overall, I think Walsh could have won the game for the Vikings, but it is wrong that he get singled out as the reason the Minnesota Vikings lost that game yesterday. What do you guys think about this? Who deserves most of the blame?

I watched the game yesterday, and all I can really say is it's just a screw up. Walsh is the big guy who holds most of the responsibility, and it's strange that he didn't make it. Maybe the ball holder didn't do his job either, and deserves some of the wrap. . . but that doesn't change the fact that Walsh is mostly responsible.

To try and hold everyone equally accountable would be inaccurate. Each person should be held accountable according to their position, the difficulty of it, and their team member's assistance.

I wouldn't say that it's 100% Walsh's fault, if the holder did make it harder on him. but I wouldn't say it's equally Walsh's and the holder's fault either. It's probably something like 75% Walsh, 25% Holder. But I don't know football that well, so I could be wrong.

Just don't put all the blame on one guy? Know who messed up what, and how much. Then you can call out faults or blame.

Sword legion : I agree everyone can't be blamed equally, but my logic is that if the Minnesota offense had scored a touchdown instead of a field goal on one of those 3 drives were they had to settle for a field goal, they would have scored 13 points instead of 9. If that interception wasn't dropped with about 5 minutes left in the fourth, Minny would have had decent field position to score. My point was that it isn't fair that Blair Walsh had to shoulder all of the blame, when without him, the team would have been shutout. 

Just because 27 yards is close doesn't mean it's going to work all the time, something just went wrong, it's not his fault and if it hadn't been for him, they would have been in an even bigger hole, so nobody has the right to single him out. He's the only reason that they even had a chance to begin with.

zanderlex : Thank you! I totally agree with you. In fact, he has immense pressure on him as he doesn't want to let his teammates, coach, fans, and the city/ state down. On top of that, it is 6 degrees below freezing so everything becomes tougher. He absolutely doesn't deserve all of the blame. I think the defense can't be blamed very much for the loss. I think the offense could have done a little bit better and the holder could have done a little bit better. But with that being said, if Blair Walsh had made this field goal, he probably won't get much praise as it was just a chip shot. There is no guarantees in anything in sports, or in life. If it was guaranteed he was going to make the field goal, then they wouldn't have had him kick it and just put 3 points on the scoreboard with him doing nothing. 

I feel immensely bad for kickers for this sort of reason. Walsh was an emotional wreck after the game when he was getting interviewed, too. I'm sure he knows how much he let everyone down with that kick, and he doesn't need to be reminded by the rest of the world (even though he certainly will). People will strangely forget the fact that he was 34 of 38 for the year, including one that was blocked, before that attempt.

Was it a bad miss? Absolutely it was, and I'm not going to deny that it was. However, you're talking about a kicker who is very on point with his field goals, and even was before that last kick (all three of his other kicks were from much longer distance, but sometimes the shortest ones can the hardest).

And the commentators said something very smart when it happened: you can't practice pressure. You can do everything else to make sure you make kicks, but the pressure of something like a closely-wound playoff game is something you can't prepare for. And kickers have practically a country pressuring him on kicks like that. You've gotta feel bad, whether they make millions or not. Money can't reverse a mistake like that to the millions of fanatics of the sport, but I wish it could. As Walsh said himself, it's going to take a long time to make people forget.

Also, does anyone remember the fact that it actually was 9-0 Vikings the entire time until the defense finally slipped? You can't blame the whole loss on that one kick.

There are 59 minutes and 55 seconds that aren't accounted for in that one miss, but that's all that will be remembered, sadly.

Hey guys, please make sure to read the rules of this forum before posting threads in here.

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=69543

There's a reason why there's already a thread created for the NFL season. Please post in there.

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=89669