re: Was Morten Andersen really that good?

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A) Morten Anderson Field Goal
B) Running Touchdown
C) Defensive stand to protect lead
D) Bobby Hebert Touchdown Pass

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As to his lower % than Carney If all Mort had to do was kick 35 yarders his % would be much higher as well.
Mora leaned on Mort to score and win games from just about anywhere on the field at anytime like Brees today

So yes Chad...he was that good. numbers cannot tell the whole story sometimes.

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so he's getting crediting for bailing us out with 35-40 yd field goals?

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As a Saint 55.7% of his FGs were 39 yards or less and he hit 91% of those.

30.6% were from 40-49 and he only hit 68% of those, while another 13.6% were 50+ and he hit that at 41.5%

Compare this to Adam Vinatieri, Gary Anderson, and Garret Hartley


39 and under Percent of kicks | Accuracy

MA 55.7% | 91.2%
AV 63.6% | 89.9%
GA 60.5% | 89.9%
GH 70.4% | 86%

Anderson was more accurate from "short range" but he was asked to kick long range much more often.

I think it really came down to his superior leg allowing coaches to lean on him more. I looked up Sebastian Janikowski's stats because he's known for his big leg and his stats and distribution are actually pretty similar to Anderson's LINK

SJ 51% | 94.1%

This was our strategy in the eighties. Let Bobby get us past the 50 yard line and in fg range. Let Morten kick a fg. Play defense. Get the ball back on offense. Rinse and repeat. This was the Mora strategy in a nutshell. And for a span of 4-5 yrs it worked really well. But if you were a fan of offense you probably would slit your wrist at that time.

I'm still pissed the way the saints treated anderson, dalton, and eric martin

eric martin was decent he deserved better but whatever

Hartley over Andersen? You're a fricking moron. Morten is universally known as the greatest place kicker of all times. Hartley is a scrub

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Sports talk radio and most message boards are the killing fields of intellectual discourse.

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I've always wondered if you were excluding ST in this little declaration.

Good enough to last a decade after he was declared a 'declining player' by Mora....

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yeah trying to understand how kicking % has evolved over last 20 years. still a ball, a kicker, a field goal.

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Not sure if your premise is correct, but I'd guess with more wide open offenses, there are more opportunities to get inside the 30 yard line to kick field goals.

I'd also imagine that players have perfected their techniques more. Soccor style was relitively new at that point. Now they have kicking academies, etc. Probably better kicking shoes and better footballs as well.

Not sure if Astroturf has anything to do with it. Are there more Domes now than the 80s/90s?

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Not sure if your premise is correct, but I'd guess with more wide open offenses, there are more opportunities to get inside the 30 yard line to kick field goals.

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LINK

I submit the following link...all time NFL field goal percentage. The data is clear cut and ironclad...kickers hit their field goals at a higher percentage now than ever, and are getting better.

1. The 13 of the top 15 are active players. Recently retired Matt Stover was one of the inactive in the top 15. The other is the "Liquored Up Idiot Kicker."

2. You have to go to #41 before you find someone who retired in the last century.

3. You have to go down to #91 to find a player who didn't play after 1989.

4. Hartley sits 8th on the list. Morten is 42nd. Carney is #17. Doug Brien is #35.

5. Of Morten's contemporaries (kickers who kicked in the 1980s), Gary Anderson is first, followed by Nick Lowery, then Morten. Gary is at #36.

6. The Packers really need to replace Mason Crosby.