I’m sure you’ve heard of the NFL Onside kick controversy that was prolific in the 2018 season. It was a very frustrating time for teams as only a small number of the attempted onside kicks were successful. It almost felt like all the rules of the game had been thrown out and we had entered a new era of football.
When I saw the first successful onside kick during the season, I almost shouted out loud with excitement. My team had finally achieved it, we had executed the onside kick! It was a real moment of pride for us and for our team.
After that first success, I started to become a bit of an expert on successful onside kicks. I kept track of the successes and failures, and soon I had a pretty good idea of how many were successful in total.
It turns out that during that season, only around ten percent of the attempted onside kicks were successful. This was a major disappointment for teams in the NFL, especially considering how much effort they put into perfecting the technique.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad news. While the onside kick success rate was quite low, the attempts still offered the potential for a significant advantage. A successful onside kick could change the momentum and even the outcome of a game, so teams had to give it a try regardless of the success rate.
In spite of its very low success rate, the onside kick continued to remain a somewhat controversial play in the NFL. People seemed to either love or hate the idea, but it was undeniable that teams had to seriously consider how to improve their onside kick success rate.
So, teams put an intense focus on developing the perfect technique for executing an onside kick. Kickers studied specific techniques and were able to gain an advantage by understanding how to execute the perfect kick. Coaches also had to consider where and when to call an onside kick in order to maximize its chances of success.
In the end, although not many successful onside kicks were achieved during the 2018 season, teams continued to work hard on perfecting the strategy. It was a necessary move, considering how much of an impact a successful onside kick could have on the outcome of a game.
So, with that in mind, teams gradually developed a greater understanding of the technique. This made it much easier to execute a successful onside kick in subsequent seasons, and the strategy has become much more reliable since then.
The 2018 season may not have been a huge success when it came to onside kicks, but it was certainly an important learning experience. Teams had to do some serious brainstorming in order to come up with the perfect strategy, and in the end it paid off. Now, onside kicks are one of the most reliable plays in the NFL.