Tennessee fine with extra points instead of field goals

The Tennessee Titans have found a way to fix the NFL’s worst field goal unit: Ignore the kicker and just score touchdowns.

The Titans went a measly 8 of 18 on field-goal attempts during the regular season, easily the league’s worst, making only 44.4%. Greg Joseph, their fifth different kicker this season, has yet to even attempt a field goal through his four games with Tennessee, and the Titans haven’t made a kick in six games.

That six-game drought without a made field goal is the longest since 1980, when both New Orleans and Green Bay did it, according to SportRadar. If the Titans don’t make a field goal today in the AFC championship game in Kansas City, they will match the 1975

Falcons and 1970 Pittsburgh Steelers as the only teams to go seven straight without a made field goal since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

It’s been so long that fans are starting to worry if the newest kicker will come through when the Titans need a kick with the stakes and pressure only rising each week. Joseph, signed off Carolina’s practice squad Dec. 18, insists he’ll be ready if and when coach Mike

Vrabel yells at him.

Why? He’s made all 15 extra points, which is essentially a 33-yard field goal these days.

“Touchdowns win games, so I don’t feel ignored at all,” Joseph said Thursday. “As long as the team’s winning, I’m happy. That means the team’s doing a great job getting in the red zone, getting in the end zone.”

The Titans (11-7) were the NFL’s best scoring inside an opponent’s 20 during the regular season, getting touchdowns 75.6% of their trips. That rate has been even better since Ryan Tannehill became the starting quarterback, with the Titans scoring 31 TDs on 35 trips into the red zone for an 88.6% pace.

“I continue to ask Greg; I’m like, ‘You’re going to make them, right?’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, absolutely,’ and so I said, ‘We’re not planning on using you. We just practice extra points all day,’ and that’s really something that we’ve been able to do,” Vrabel said.

The Titans haven’t made a field goal since Ryan Succop connected on a 31-yarder in the third quarter of a win at Indianapolis on Dec. 1. Succop missed a kick in a win at Oakland, then had a 45-yarder blocked in a loss to Houston. The Titans put Succop back on injured reserve days later.