Heading into Sunday's Week 5 matchup in London, England, against the Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings kicker Will Reichard had not missed any of his field goal or extra point attempts this season.
Unfortunately, that changed this weekend after Reichard was unable to connect on a 51-yard field-goal attempt midway through the fourth quarter. However, video evidence that popped up online after Minnesota's win on Sunday shows that the second-year kicker should've been given another chance to make his 51-yard try.
Following the matchup, KFAN's Zach Halverson shared a video on X that appears to show Reichard's kick hitting one of the TV production wires that hang above the field. Instead of his kick being ruled a miss, game officials should've wiped away the attempt and awarded a re-kick to Reichard.
But that's not what happened, and, unfortunately, Minnesota's kicker now has an unnecessary blemish on his numbers this season.
Refs rob Minnesota Vikings kicker Will Reichard of perfect season after blown call against Cleveland Browns
It's safe to assume that Reichard is happy the Vikings were able to leave the field on Sunday with a win over Cleveland. But one can also assume that he probably isn't too thrilled that a TV wire potentially messed up his chance at a perfect season.
Overall, this year, Reichard has now made 8-of-9 field-goal attempts (including one from 62 yards away in Week 3) and all 11 of his extra-point tries.
He still has a good chance to have a very good season, but Gary Anderson's performance in 1998 will continue to remain the only time when a Minnesota kicker made all of his field-goal and extra-point attempts during the regular season.
Reichard's miss on Sunday seemed uncharacteristically off target when it sailed wide right, but now we know that there might have been a reason why the kick attempt looked so bad.