Mason has been going downhill. He misses constantly when ever we need a stop the bleeding clutch kick. It's bad enough missing but then the opponent gets excellent field position. Against Minn when we needed that kick & he failed again.It is getting kind of old. Time to look for another kicker.

Mason is pretty much par for the course with this entire team, and replacing our kicker might be the least of our concerns right now.

longwell outkicked him on kickoff distance too. (at least to my angry eyes, haven't looked at the #s...)

I think GB needs to stop relying on Crosby to make every 50+ yard field goal. Crosby only had 4 misses, 3 of them from 50+. Not only that, Crosby has the second most FG attempts in the league, only behind Lawrence Tynes, who has also missed 4. The difference? Tynes misses have come from within 50, two of them from 20-29 yds.

If Crosby was going out and shanking with 50 yds, then you can be concerned. However, Crosby is only missing from outside of 50, which is not a gimme for anyone. Hell, MM will even send Crosby out for 55 yd FGs. Some teams don't even consider doing that.

Let me channel Ted and find a kicker who is 100% from 50+ I am sure he is out there somewhere

I wasn't bothered by the 51 yd miss. However, his kick offs looked like they were coming up short to me. Longwell seemed to be getting about 10 more yards on his. Of course there are variables other than distance at play (like hang time).

Regardless, I don't have much beef with Crosby. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing him hit a 50+ some time soon...

Yes it seems that since his rookie year Crosby is kicking for less power. Back in his rookie year it seemed he was getting a lot of touchbacks this year it seems he can not get it pass the 5-10 yard line.

I think the short kickoffs were part of a VERY poorly executed plan to limit Harvin's effectiveness on returns. In general, Crosby's kickoffs have been good this season. For some reason there was also a major problem with players slipping on the turf in this game, which is what happened to Crosby on Harvin's 48 yard return. Crosby slipped when planting for what was supposed to be a squib.

As to the general idea that Crosby tends to yack on clutch kicks... I agree. I have very little confidence in Crosby making a kick of any length when the game is on the line.

Well, Crosby hasn't been give much of an opportunity to really "choke" per se. Beside the game winning kick in his first year against Philly, all of Crosby's game winning attempts have been from 50+. As for the kickoffs, I believe that Crosby was trying to kick the ball higher, instead of distance against Minn. Kick the ball higher, lets the coverage team get down the field to be there right when the returner catches the ball. However, the coverage sucked and it backfired and helped Minn get great field position. I put more of the blame on the coverage team than Crosby.

Most of the time players succeed or fail by the position they are put into.. M3 didn't do Crosby any favors on that drive/attempt.

M3 didn't help last year at Minny either

Last year alone two games were lost as a direct result of Crosby not delivering when we needed him. The kick vs MIN is a kick that Crosby needs to make. The 37 yd game winner that was blocked vs CHI was also on Crosby.

Everytime we need a crucial FG, Crosby manages to miss. I don't care if it's from 50 yeards out. You're payed to kick FG's and you should make them. He's not reliable.

And what's up with the short kick offs vs Min? He was terrible in that game.

1- My confidence is Crosby is waning.

2- KO to the 5-10? If they were planned, the planning sucked.

3- No more 50 yard attempts unless there are 2 seconds left in the game and it would be the winning score (and refer to #1)

4- Not sure about Crosby, I want him to do good, just seems he can be routine enough to make you think he is good enough.

To be honest, this thread is probably just because someone needs to be a goat, like every other thread has been the past few weeks. Crosby has only 4 misses out of 18 tries, 3 of them from 50+. Only one other kicker in the league has attempt as many kicks from 50+ as Crosby has, and that is Josh Scobee who is 2 of 5 from 50+. I'd understand the frustration if Crosby was shanking the 37 yarder or the 42 yarder, but Crosby's misses have all come from a distance that not even half of the league's kickers have attempted yet! 50 yard field goals are never a gimme. In fact, this year, there is only 2 kickers in the entire league that has 2 good field goals from 50+. All the ones that are 1 for 1 from 50+? All of them, except for one, have multiple misses from closer than 50.

KO's to the 5-10 could have very well been planned. Kick it high, let the coverage team get down while the ball is still in the air, doesn't let Harvin do anything. Coverage sucked. Ok, then they tried the squib, it worked. The thought process could have very well been, "Well, the squib worked for them, lets be ready for it" and then try to catch them off guard by kicking it high, again.

Look, I know we all want our kickers to be perfect, but Crosby is still statistically a top 5 kicker. I mean, who would you rather have as a kicker?

Is Jan Stenerud still available?

Sanity ALERT!!! Sanity ALERT!!! Danger Will Robinson...

Some one is interupting the hysteria setting by introducing sanity to the discussion. Quick switch back to Dellusional setting where NFL Kickers grow on trees before it is too late!!!

I was more concerned with the short kickoffs than the missed field-goal, critical as that was. Crosby's deal was supposed to be that he has a strong leg. I think it might work well for special teams for the kicker to boot it into the endzone. If he was only kicking it to the 10 on purpose, that didn't seem to work that well.

Clearly the kickoff/coverage special-teams work was atrocious. Insanely bad, so if the response is said to be insane by some, I suppose that seems proportional.

I don't know how the distribution of blame should be distributed between Crosby, Slocum, and the special teams tacklers. If the decision to give him the ball no deeper than the ten everytime was Slocum's call, I'd suggest some discussion of his wisdom. Personally I'd suggest kicking the ball deeper.

What an incredibly logical post. Thank you for being sane, VA.

Mason Crosby would be 13/14 if you take away the 50 yard field goal attempts.

Only 2 other kickers have even attempted 3 or more 50+ yard field goals this year.

Only a handful of kickers attempt as many 50+ yard field goals as Crosby, and they're not high percentage kicks. And even then, Crosby goes out for 55-yarders or longer, and probably only Janikowski sees as many of those.

If he can average about 50%, that's about all you can ask for from 50+ yards.

I'm still OK with Crosby. It's the guy that's been tweaking his form all season, and putting LB's and 5'9" CB's, against 6'4" recievers on onside kicks. The same guy that put a poor punt returner and valuable WR on punt returns instead of aforementioned 5'9" CB, and then replaced said CB after a 45 yd return, with an irreplaceable pro-bowl CB. Crosby, like many others on this team, will be fine when his coach is replaced with someone that knows what he's doing. IMO.

This is an interesting point. Depending on down and distance, if it's a 40-50% proposition to get 3 points, would it maybe be better (probability-wise) to go for it instead? I don't have the distance to go for first down on those attempts, but it would be a worthwhile evaluation for MM's staff. It's one thing to have faith in your kicker, it's another to play percentages.

I don't believe anyone is looking to find a goat. There are way too many things wrong with this team right now to find just one goat. The threads which are highlighting the negatives on this team may seem overwhelming to you, but ask yourself; why are there so many gripes right now????? Someone wrote that going from 8 sacks to 6 sacks was a good thing. Is this team that bad that the people need to extract stats like that to point out the good things with this team? That is somewhat of an oxymoron.

If Crosby was as good as you are portraying (with your stats), then why does he still miss important kicks? Is it because someone is not putting him into position to make the play? Or, is he not making the play? The HC must feel like Crosby can make those 50 yarders on a regular basis or he wouldn't put him out there. So tell me, if you had to finger a goat for those failed 50 yarders, who would it be?

Like I said, my confidence in him is waning, and he is adequate enough to make you believe he is better than most kickers, as your stats show. Crosby has let us down several times the past two seasons. This doesn't help when there are other larger troubles on the team. If he makes a few of those missed kicks, we aint talking right now and the other problems with this team seem less.

If he makes a few of those missed kicks, we aint talking right now and the other problems with this team seem less.
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Excellent point. He needs to go on a torrid streak of hitting everything he tries.

If it's 40% chance of him making it i would rather go for it. If we don't make it we are still better off than if he missed the field goal. They line up 8 -10 yrds behind the line of scrimmage & when he misses the field is that much shorter.The way we cover kickoffs & punts it should be a no brainer.

Problem solved. Always go for it on 4th down, if the FG distance would be more than 50. You don't make it, so what. Crosby woulda missed anyway.

I dont want to seem arguementative, but I'm unclear exactly what level of perfection you folks require.
A quick scan of NFL.com stats shows Crosby is ranked 3rd overall in the entire league.
Thats not the NFC North....Not the NFC Conference...but the entire league.

Why again should we be looking for another kicker?

I'm not saying anything, its the stats talking - "Opinion Not Included"

Just a random thought. How many different holders ahs he had over the past 3 years? Ruvell Martin was holding, Rodgers ahs held, jon Ryan, etc. Sometimes it is about chemistry and the hold. But again I am suree MM is working with MC on cleaning that up and making it better.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy on K Mason Crosby's missed FG against Minnesota: "Yes, I expect him to make long field goals. And Mason expects to make it in that situation. Again, with all the factors leading up to that decision, I would kick it again."

I'm guessing the problem is Crosby's pad level.

I would think that they do practice at practice. They aren't just standing around . Missing field goals are such game changing moves. We would be better off to just punt the ball out of bounds ,rather than letting the opposition run it back .

Special teams just is not very good this year...

Raise your hand if you want another Derrick Frost experiment this year.