Proving his worth last Sunday in the Baltimore Ravens 29-14 win over the Houston Texans, placekicker Billy Cundiff basically provided the difference in the game with a team record-tying five field goals. Cundiff was 5 for 5 on the afternoon and is now 14 of 16 on the season, with his only misses being two 51-yard attempts in the team's 37-7 beatdown over the St. Louis Rams in week three.
Signed to a five-year contract in the off season, Cundiff is proof-positive how important all three phases of the game, including Special Teams, is to a team's success. In addition to his field goal accuracy last week, he put all seven of his kickoffs into or out of the back of the end zone for touchbacks, negating any chance the Texans had at a game-changing return.
A story on Yahoo! Sports by a passionate football fan details the top kickers in the NFL, and this guy includes the Ravens' Cundiff among them, and rightly so. While Cundiff does not have the incredible distance of Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who has made 11 of 12 field goals this season, including not only five of six beyond 50 yards, but also an NFL record-tying 63 yard field goal.
Last season, Cundiff broke an NFL record with 40 touchbacks on kickoffs, far ahead of anyone else, including Janikowski, who finished second in that department with 29, well back of Billy's amazing total.