My Kingdom For a Kicker

What do Connor Barth; Mike Nugent; Cairo Santos (twice); Cody Parkey; and Eddie Pineiro have in common? They’ve all tried to fill the void left when the Bears cut kicker Eddie Gould right before the start of the 2016 season. Gould is the guy who kicked four field goals Sunday—from 26; 47; 50; and 28 yards—in the 49ers’ 19-12 win over the Cowboys. The forty-year old Gould is now 29/29 in postseason field-goal attempts. After being let go by the Munsters’ then-GM Ryan Pace, Gould spent half a season with the Giants, where he went 10/10 on field goals. In his seven years with San Francisco, Gould has gone 161/184, for a 87.5 percent success rate. And Barth et al? They’ve gone a collective 157/188, good 83.5 percent of the time. Gosh, what do you think might have happened in that wildcard game against the Eagles, where Parkey missed a 43-yard attempt with time expiring and the Bears down by one? Did I mention that Gould has never missed a field-goal attempt in the postseason? Double-doink.