The Los Angeles Chargers prevailed easily over the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, dominating Dallas 28-6 for a massive road win. Things got a little hairy in the first half, however, with kicker Nick Novak suffering a back injury that stilted their plans at the kicker position.
Novak missed a first-quarter field goal and then later in the half, the Chargers were forced to go for it on fourth down in the red zone. Novak would return to knock down a single field goal, but he also missed an extra point and was clearly in pain.
Their backup plan? That would be punter Drew Kaser.
Let's just say he didn't net any favorable reviews during his practice attempts. Or put in a way that doesn't feature a pun, he completely missed the net.
The Chargers backup kicker missed the practice net… pic.twitter.com/jUpyGcO6QL
— Steve Noah (@Steve_OS) November 23, 2017
That's not even a chip shot, it's a tap in, a lay up. He's three feet away from the daggum net! People were sort of freaking out too.
Drew Kaser missed the practice net warming up. That’ll make me go for it on 4th-and-13 as well.
— Edward Egros (@EdwardEgrosFox4) November 23, 2017
This has potential to be the most Chargersy game we’ve seen - need a catastrophic special teams fumble as the next piece
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 23, 2017
Chargers hd coach Lynn saw backup kicker miss the practice fg net from 2 ft away and said. HELL NO, you ain’t kicking S***. pic.twitter.com/sHLLA2EJUM
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) November 23, 2017
Cowboys take out chargers kicker backup starts warming up and first kick he misses the practice net and sends in in the stands 😂😂
— Raymond (@rjperezzz) November 23, 2017
Los Angeles Chargers FG kicker misses his first FG attempt so they warmup their backup kicker. He missed the kicking net on the sideline. 😳
— Kyle Turnham (@KyleTurnham) November 23, 2017
i almost choked on some food when I saw the Chargers backup kicker completely missing the net. https://t.co/hjCItyUtzU
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) November 23, 2017
Los Angeles would still win, so it's easy to gloss over the situation. But the Chargers still have a very bad kicker problem in the first place.
The Chargers have now made an NFL-worst 61% of their field goals this season (11-18).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 23, 2017
And let's not sleep on the Cowboys here either: they have played a team that lost a kicker to injury for two straight weeks (Eagles kicker Jake Elliott also went down in Week 11) and haven't managed to benefit at all from it. That may be a product of the Cowboys' season circling the drain as we speak.
It would also be remiss not to point out that Kaser is actually a pretty darn good punter.
With that said, don't let this distract you from the fact that Kaser dropped a 69-yard punt onto the 1-yd line a few weeks ago 👏 pic.twitter.com/5N4OggDq3C
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) November 23, 2017
It's not like he was expecting to kick after all.