Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

One of the more baffling decisions I've ever seen that absolutely came back to bite them

Nick Mike-Mayer who was having a bad season, hurts himself in week 12. Out for the season. They turn to Mike Michel who is their (bad) punter to handle placekicking duties the rest of the season.

Strangely the Eagles would go the next 4 regular season games without even so much as a field goal attempt I mean what did they do if they had a drive that ended in a 4th and 7 on the oppositions 15 late in that season? Were they going for it? Were they punting? (ha!) In all Michel attempts 12 extra points and misses 3.

Finally the playoffs roll around and Michel is still the teams kicker. Wet game in Atlanta...Eagles up 13-0. Michel has already missed an XP and his first field goal attempt EVER. Late Falcons rally makes it 14-13. Eagles drive down the field and set up what could be a game winning 34 yard FG with about 15 seconds left. It's wide right. And it was such a meek attempt the ball isn't even height wise 1/3 of the way up the goalpost when it sails past it

How the heck does something like this happen?

And to add to the dilemma Dick Vermeil was the head coach...
His first job was as a Special Teams Coach... did he think he could coach away the problem?
It can't be that he didn't think the position was important... ?

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... i/1978.htm

JuggernautJ wrote:And to add to the dilemma Dick Vermeil was the head coach...
His first job was as a Special Teams Coach... did he think he could coach away the problem?
It can't be that he didn't think the position was important... ?

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... i/1978.htm

Aren't successful football coaches generally described as geniuses?

Michel had some kicking experience. He was the placekicker his senior year at Stanford. 12-27 is not a great percentage, but he got a lot of opportunities at least. He hit a couple of longer FG in some All Star games, and was drafted 5th by the Dolphins in 1977.

I don't know who they could have gotten at that point in the season. There would have been the reject types. Rich Szaro and Fred Steinfort were available.

Maybe Michael was a good luck charm. He was not even a good punter for the Eagles. His first game he punted 4 times for 100 yards. Included was a long punt of 33 yards and a short punt of 9 yards. Not included in the 4 for 100 was an attempt where he simply whiffed on the punt. Missed kicking the ball. That was called a fumble.

Amazingly, the 6-0 Redskins couldn't score after either the 9 yard punt or the whiff. They started with the ball on the Eagles 28 after the 9 yarder. After a couple of holding penalties and a sack, they punted at 4th and 37. That was the Redskins' only punt of the day.

After the whiff, the Redskins lost the ball when Theismann fumbled after a Dennis Harrison sack. Redskins had 6 turnovers, 2 missed field goals, a missed fake field goal. One of the turnovers was a fumbled Michel punt. Everything worked out, the Eagles won 17-10 to go to 4-3.

Did the Eagles bring anybody in and work them out? I think NIck Lowery was available.

SixtiesFan wrote:Did the Eagles bring anybody in and work them out? I think NIck Lowery was available.

Other kickers were available too such as Fred Cox, Horst Muhlman, Skip Butler, and Rich Szaro. Cox had retired after the 1977 season but I think the Eagles could have lured him out of retirement to join the team during the postseason. The Eagles should have learned from the Falcons signing of Tim Mazzetti (who was tending bar one Monday night and the next Monday night was kicking for Atlanta) earlier in the season that there were quality kickers out there waiting for a chance.

Ironically it was Vermeil that cut Mazzetti in favor of Mike-Mayer at the end of the preseason despite the advice of all of his coaching assistants. Talk about a bad decision coming back to bite you in the.....er, postseason !

Michel didn't play again after that game, the following season the Eagles got rookies K Tony Franklin and P Max Runager. Mazzetti only played two mote years in the NFL. He resurfaced in the USFL with the Boston Breakers in 1983.

What were the rules at the time regarding adding to a roster? Could they have signed someone after the regular season ended?

Maybe they were so stunned at their dumb luck in even making the playoffs that they weren't thinking straight.

Wherever he is, Mike Michel should buy Cody Parkey a drink.