Many things have gone wrong for the Kansas City Chiefs this season.
One of them? The struggles of the usually reliable kicker Harrison Butker.
Butker missed a field goal on Sunday night in the Chiefs' loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football, a defeat which dropped Kansas City's record to 6-7 on the season and puts them very close to being out of the playoff picture altogether.
One missed kick isn't the end of the world, except it isn't just one missed kick.
Butker has now missed eight kicks this season: four field goals and four extra points.
That's tied for the NFL lead. Joshua Karty and Blake Grupe both have eight missed kicks this season, too, and the Rams and the Saints released them, with this insight coming from Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
Would the Chiefs release Butker, especially this late in the season? There's pretty much no chance of that.
But it is a very real narrative that has impacted Kansas City's season.
MORE: How the Buffalo Bills at home in the snow in December are an unbreakable streak
It's also something that will raise at least a little question in the offseason. Would the Chiefs consider having a second kicker in training camp next summer, just in case? Butker might not like the implications of that, but the kicking business in the NFL moves quickly. When kicks stop going through, teams don't wait long before making a change.
Butker has been a hero much more often for the Chiefs than he has been a villain. But if the kicks keep missing, there's no telling what might happen.
More news:
- Travis Kelce with two critical drops doomed the Chiefs
- A hilarious no-look handshake by Matt LaFleur, Ben Johnson
- Eagles have an inflatable 'positivity rabbit' in their locker room
- LeBron James does 10 points a new way for the Lakers
- DK Metcalf changed his position to make a winning play