NASHVILLE - 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-for-18 on field-goal attempts during the regular season, with that 44.4% success rate easily the league's worst. Greg Joseph, their fifth 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 the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers did it, according to SportRadar. If the Titans (11-7) don't make a field goal Sunday in the AFC championship game at Kansas City (13-4), they will match the 1975 Atlanta 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 be able to come through when the Titans need a kick, with the stakes and pressure only rising with each passing week. Joseph, signed off the Carolina Panthers' practice squad Dec. 18, insists he'll be ready if and when coach Mike Vrabel yells at him.
Why? Well, he has made the kick each of the 15 times he has attempted an extra point, 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."
Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill passes during practice Friday in Nashville. / AP photo by Mark HumphreyThe Titans were the NFL's best scoring inside an opponent's 20-yard line during the regular season, getting touchdowns on 75.6% of their trips. That red-zone rate has been even better since Ryan Tannehill became the starting quarterback, with the Titans scoring 31 touchdowns on 35 trips inside the 20 for an 88.6% pace.
Said Vrabel: "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."
The Titans haven't made a field goal since Ryan Succop connected on a 31-yarder in the third quarter of a road win against the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 1. Succop missed a kick in another road win against the Oakland Raiders, then had a 45-yarder blocked in a home loss to the Houston Texans. The Titans put Succop back on injured reserve days later.
Tennessee lost in Week 2 to Indianapolis 19-17 when Cairo Santos missed a 45-yard field goal, and the Titans cut him a day after he missed three field-goal attempts and had a fourth blocked in a 14-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 6.
Touchdowns are always preferable to field goals for any offense, of course, but the Titans might have more motivation.
"Well, that's one of our goals," Tannehill said. "We talk about it every week coming away with seven points when we're down there."
Vrabel had an opportunity late in the team's wild-card win at New England to possibly let Joseph try a 52-yard field goal. Instead, his Titans took a couple of penalties before letting All-Pro punter Brett Kern and the coverage team pin the Patriots at their 11.
"The way that he's kicked the football on the extra points is a good indication that he's confident and that he's swinging it well," Vrabel said. "And I think that if you look around the league, some kickers have missed as many extra points as they have field goals, and we know that that's a different kick now than what it was. So to me, those extra points are field goals."
Joseph keeps practicing. He kicks field goals before games, at halftime and on the sideline any time the offense gets close to field-goal range.
He's also happy kicking only extra points.
Said Joseph: "Touchdowns win games."