Greg Joseph – K
Greg Joseph has been on a very long leash this season. Despite his poor play, fans haven’t been calling for his head, and they have even made excuses for him missing kicks that the majority of NFL kickers hit on a routine basis. After Sunday, the leash shouldn’t just be shortened it needs to be thrown out.
Greg Joseph again missed kicks that made this game a much closer one than it needed to be. The blocked 56-yarder at the end of the half was definitely a difficult kick, but he hit it so low that it basically hit the head of a Cardinals defender and never stood a chance.
The one miss that really hurt was late in the game when the Vikings scored a touchdown to go up by eight points. Joseph trotted out to extend that to nine by hitting a routine extra point. Like death and taxes, Joseph missing this kick has proven to be a certainty this season, and of course, he missed it.
This gave the Cardinals one last shot to tie the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion, but the defense stood up and ended the game.
Joseph is hitting just 64.3 percent of his field goals this season and has missed three extra points. That isn’t good enough for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. While the free-agent options available aren’t great, there has to be someone out there who can be a little more consistent for the Vikings the rest of the way.