If you were surprised to see new kicker Caleb Sturgis miss a short field goal and an extra point in Sunday's loss to the Redskins, you shouldn't have been. There's a reason he was cut by the Miami Dolphins this summer: He's just not that good.
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But with Cody Parkey on IR with a trio of torn groin muscles, the Eagles were forced to sign a kicker last week and went with the former Florida Gator, Sturgis.
After he missed a 33-yard field goal and an extra point against Washington -- that's four possible points in a game the Eagles lost by three -- it wouldn't have been a surprise to see Chip Kelly bring in another kicker to try out for the job. But according to the Eagles coach, he's sticking with Sturgis.
"We're going to stay with Caleb," Kelly said when asked about the state of his kicker. "We looked at what's available out there, and feel like -- I think the state of kicking in the league right now is not very good -- there's been a lot of changes, Houston changed their kicker last week. I think Tampa Bay has changed their kicker. I think a lot of people have done that...
"But we feel, in terms of what's out there, that we're going to stick with Caleb."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement from his coach, but then again, it's enough to keep him here ... for now.
Kelly is well aware of how critical those missed kicks were Sunday -- as well as the one Parkey missed in the opener against the Falcons.
"It's a play here or a play there [that's costing us games]," Kelly said. "We've lost a game by two, we've lost a game by three, and we lost another game by 10. We've lost three games by 15 points. You hit two kicks, and we're sitting here 3-1 and everyone's happy."
Maybe on the surface, but hitting a few kicks wouldn't fix the multitude of problems plaguing this team -- like the offensive line, injuries to the defense, lack of a vertical passing attack, and the list goes on. They would reveal themselves eventually, one way or another.
And if you're expecting a dramatic turnaround from Sturgis against Saints this week, don't. Just take a look at what Bill Barnwell of Grantland.com wrote about the former Dolphins kicker during the preseason:
I’m not really sure what’s going on with the Dolphins and kicker Caleb Sturgis. Last year, Miami’s kicking woes made up the majority of those special teams problems, and Sturgis was primarily to blame. He went 29-for-37 (78.4 percent) on field goals, the 27th-best percentage in the league for a kicker with 20 or more tries, and an ugly figure in an era when kickers are more accurate than they’ve ever been. Football Outsiders, which adjusts those figures for distance and location, says Sturgis was 8.8 points worse than an average kicker last season on field goals and extra points, the second-worst rate behind Detroit’s band of mistakes at kicker. [Grantland.com]