The Cincinnati Bengals had no shortage of special teams blunders in Week 3's awful loss in Pittsburgh. However, as we've come to expect, kicker Evan McPherson nailed a few PATs and field goals this past Sunday, including his fifth kick of 50-plus yards this season.
To put that power and precision into perspective, McPherson went 5-for-5 on field goals of 50 or more for the entire 2022 season. He was 5-for-8 from that distance last year even as he hit a career-best 89% overall accuracy rate.
McPherson is a legitimate stud who's been piping-hot since training camp and, to my knowledge, hasn't missed a kick in quite some time in any setting. The data continues to back up the notion that he's a legitimately elite kicker, too.
McPherson builds lead in season-long Kick Value Added metric
FanSided's own Adam Fromal is the ultimate NFL kicker guru, and created a metric called Kick Value Added (KVA) that factors in every variable to define just how good a kicker is. Evan McPherson is once again leading the way in KVA at 5.58.
Here's what Fromal had to say about McPherson's prowess (Happy Birthday Adam if you see this!):
"The Bengals shouldn't hesitate to let Evan McPherson trot out onto the field right now because he's on quite the hot streak. After hitting from 38 and 50 with three PATs, he's earned 12.73 KVA in his last eight games without a single negative performance. The Week 4 matchup between him and Cam Little is going to feature some impressive kicking."
Last season, when he hit 25 of 28 field goals and 41 of 44 PATs, McPherson's aggregate KVA was 4.9632 — good enough to rank 11th in the NFL. He's exceeding that mark through three games.
Week 4 should indeed be a barn burner of a kicking duel between McPherson and cannon-legged Jacksonville Jaguars specialist Cam Little. Fromal couldn't resist mentioning his team's kicker in the immediate orbit of Money Mac. I get it. They're about to play each other. I'm kidding.
Little is actually struggling so far with a -1.46 KVA due to two missed field goals, though he has nailed all 10 of his extra points.
If it comes down to a kick to win on Sunday at Paycor Stadium, I'd actually like my guy McPherson. Don't think I would've said that before the season started.
Money Mac could've shined brighter in Week 3 if not for Bengals' brutal miscues
The narratives are running a little wild in the wake of Cincinnati's 30-27 defeat at the Steelers' hands. It's understandable. Squandering a 2-0 start and a shot to be atop the AFC North right out of the gates is a bummer, especially since 10 points can be directly blamed on the Bengals' special teams gaffes.
Ke'Shawn Williams' muffed point gifted the Steelers a critical field goal (and led to his expedient release from the team, though he's now back on the practice squad).
Bengals defensive end Cedric Johnson committed a 15-yard roughing the kicker penalty that led to a Pittsburgh touchdown, too. Johnson has played great this year. Special teams coach Darrin Simmons put Johnson in a bad spot by going after a blocked punt when simply getting the ball back to Joe Burrow would've been the sound strategy.
Oh, and the Bengals were right on the edge of Evan McPherson's considerable range to tie the game with a field goal on the final possession. Alas, Burrow fumbled the ball away, and now folks are out there questioning whether he's clutch or not. Hence my talk about the "narratives running a little wild."
Point being, if Williams secures that punt, or Johnson doesn't smash into the punter, or Burrow doesn't fumble, McPherson could've added even more points to his resume and could've stretched his KVA lead.
Oh well. Sunday's game was a literal Murphy's law comedy of errors on special teams. Thankfully, at least part of the unit is still special (McPherson), and at the end of the day, he's the most important piece of that whole operation. As long as he keeps kicking like this, and Burrow keeps the offense humming, the Bengals can beat literally anyone, anywhere.
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