Billy Ray Bulldog » Brats & Beer

March 28, 2006
posted under: Billy Cundiff, Packers, World Baseball Classic

It’s funny how this blogging thing works: you get on a roll posting every day, or multiple times a day, and it starts to become a part of your regular routine, but you only have to take a couple days off to fall right out of that routine and suddenly you’re not sure what all the fuss was about. Anyway, a planned short break turned into a week-long hiatus here at Brats & Beer during which there were several things I could have posted on, but didn’t. In the NCAA tournament, all three contending Badger State teams got bounced in the first round and I didn’t really feel the need to post any sad epitaph to those seasons. Wayne Morgan got the boot as coach of the ISU men’s basketball team (hereafter known as Mistake #1) and subsequently my alma mater hired former UNI coach Greg McDermott (to be known as Mistake #2), and still I was unmoved from the couch to post my misgivings. Japan won the World Baseball Classic in a pretty exciting game, but I didn’t really see the point of rambling on about it in this forum.

Finally, though, I am back at the keyboard, aroused from my blissful slumber by the Green Bay Packers, who yesterday signed Billy Cundiff as their replacement for kicker Ryan Longwell. It was bad enough that they couldn’t come up with the scratch to keep Longwell around, being that he’s only the leading scorer in team history and maybe one of the best kickers we’ve ever had, and it was just salt on the wound that he signed on with the hated Minnesota Vikings, but it boggles my mind that Ted Thompson thinks for a minute that picking up the former Drake Bulldog place kicker is going to be anything but a disaster.

Cundiff has made 73% of his field goal attempts during three full seasons and part of last year (before sustaining a season-ending hip injury) with the Dallas Cowboys, with his longest being 56 yards. Longwell, by comparison, leaves Green Bay after nine seasons having made almost 82% of his attempts. Looking just at attempts from 30 to 39 yards (the bread and butter for kickers), Billy made 73% of those kicks while Ryan managed an 87% success rate. Cundiff doesn’t even offer an upgrade on kickoff duties as his 61.2 yard average is nearly identical to Longwell’s career average. And let’s remember, Cundiff played half of his games indoors. (Okay, technically Texas Stadium is open to the elements, but compared to Lambeau Field the Cowboys are effectively a dome team.)

What’s even more frustrating is that the Packers signed Cundiff after entertaining Adam Vinatieri, maybe the best kicker in the league right now. His meeting with the team was described as “very positive” by coach McCarthy, but the former Patriot signed with Indianapolis instead. How do you let a guy like that, a guy who hit game-winning field goals in two Super Bowls, slip through your fingers? And how do you then fool yourself with the idea that Cundiff is the obvious answer? Heck, even though the guy is a jerk, I would have been happy had they signed Mike Vanderjagt.