If Blair Walsh had just gotten the ball up a little higher on his missed 26-yard-field goal the Vikings might be 7-7 right now. And J’Marcus Webb might still have a job.
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But Walsh didn’t get the proper trajectory on his kick, so the Vikes are 6-8 and J’Marcus Webb is looking for work.
Webb was waived on Tuesday by the Vikings, likely as a direct result of his inability to block Jason Jones, the man who got a hand up to block Walsh’s kick.
A member of the Vikings in 2013, Webb was brought back to town a couple weeks ago after Phil Loadholt went down with injury. He was in on place kicks vs. Detroit because of last week’s injury to Charlie Johnson.
After the game, Webb remarked about the difficulty of blocking on the field goal unit, especially against the hard-rushing Lions (via the Star-Tribune):
"“Their inside guys come pretty hard,” Webb said. “It’s definitely the toughest two seconds in football.”"
Webb also got rushed hard on Walsh’s field goal miss earlier in the game. Jones told reporters that his rush against Webb early convinced him he could get through and block the second kick.
Even with Jones penetrating on Webb, Walsh might still have made the 26-yarder had he gotten the ball higher. But we’ll never know for sure.