There’s no question that Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans is on everybody’s short list for NFL Coach of the Year, but the first-year shot-caller made a curious decision at the end of his team’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston had the ball at the Jacksonville 39-yard line with fourth-and-12 and 34 seconds left in the game.
Instead of putting the ball in the hands of C.J. Stroud, who came into this game with one fourth-quarter touchdown as a passer and another fourth-down touchdown as a runner this season, Ryans made the call to have kicker Matt Amendola, on the roster after starting kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn was placed on injured reserve with a quadricep injury earlier this month, attempt a 58-yard field goal.
Here was the result.
A very tough loss for the #Texans, kicker Matt Ammendola is a yd short on 58 yd fg, hitting the crossbar
A great effort from CJ Stroud unfortunately isn’t enough. Not great officiating & some playcalls didn’t help. Credit to Jags defense, great coverage pic.twitter.com/mBOTupBw3S
— Maanav Gupta (@MGSportsTalk) November 26, 2023
Ammendola did indeed nearly tie the game, but we have to look at the process here. Ammendola has been in the NFL since 2021. and New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Texans, he had never made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards. The last time he even attempted one was with the Jets in 2021 — in fact, he attempted three that season, and he missed them all.
Furthermore, if you go back to Ammendola’s career at Oklahoma State, he hadn’t made a field goal attempt of 50 or more yards since 2017.
So, again, we have to wonder why.
