NFL kickers seem automatic. Except on all those blocked field goals.

When Washington Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne pushed his way between two Chicago Bears blockers, reached up with his right arm and batted away Jake Moody’s field goal attempt in the fourth quarter Monday night at Northwest Stadium, it appeared the NFL might have its latest consequential blocked kick in a season filled with them.

Fortunately for the Bears, they got another chance. The execution of their field goal operation was sound on their next opportunity and Moody connected on a 38-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Commanders, 25-24. The blocked field goal did not cost the Bears the game. But if it had, it would have continued a trend this season.

There were 11 blocked field goals through the Week 6 games. That’s the most in the opening stretch of a season since 2022, when there were 12. And while the volume has not been historic, the impact has been significant.

The Philadelphia Eagles blocked two field goal tries by Los Angeles Rams kicker Joshua Karty in the fourth quarter of their Week 3 game in Philadelphia. The second block came on a 44-yard attempt by Karty to win the game, and Eagles defensive lineman Jordan Davis, who had the block, grabbed the ball and rumbled 61 yards for a touchdown with time expired in the 33-26 triumph.

The same day, the Cleveland Browns blocked a 43-yard field goal try by Green Bay Packers kicker Brandon McManus with 21 seconds remaining and then hurried down the field on offense for a winning 55-yard field goal in a 13-10 victory. In Week 4, the Bears preserved a 25-24 win over the Las Vegas Raiders by blocking a 54-yard field goal attempt by Daniel Carlson with 33 seconds left.

“It’s funny,” Bears tight end Durham Smythe, a member of their field goal protection unit, said in their locker room late Monday night. “There has been a lot. And I think teams are just getting good at jumping snap counts. If you watch a lot of these, the ones off the edge … it’s just they get a read on something and they jump it. And that’s kind of how you have to block a field goal unless there’s … a fundamental breakdown. And there’s been a lot of that around the league this year, guys jumping snaps and making a play.”

Some around the league believe there have been fundamental protection breakdowns on some of the blocked field goals. They have theorized that many teams focused on kickoff returns and coverage during the special teams portions of their practices, with the offseason change to the touchback spot on kickoffs boosting the rate of returns. That left less time for issues such as the fundamentals of field goal protection.

“There’s been some critical errors that obviously have really hurt us,” Packers Coach Matt LaFleur said following his team’s 40-40 tie with the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4 in Arlington, Texas.

The Cowboys blocked an extra point try by McManus during that game and returned it to the opposite end zone for a rare defensive two-point conversion.

“You’ve got to go back and you’ve got to practice,” LaFleur said that night. “… You’ve got to do a better job in practice. That’s disappointing, obviously, three weeks in a row where we’ve had a kick blocked.”

The Eagles also scored a touchdown on a blocked punt in their Week 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But blocked punts actually are down, with five league-wide through the Week 6 games after there were seven at this point last season.

The key blocks are coming at a time when kickers are better than ever, with increased field goal accuracy and range. Their proficiency has been further bolstered by an offseason change to the rules for the specialized kicking balls, allowing teams to prepare those footballs for use before game days. The blocked field goals are more crucial than ever, given the increased likelihood that the kicks will be converted if they’re not blocked.

In one aspect, however, the long-range field goal exploits of today’s kickers give the defense an improved opportunity. If a kicker needs to hit a driving, lower-trajectory kick to propel the ball far enough to reach distant goalposts, that reduces the margin for error at the line of scrimmage and gives the rushers an increased chance for a block.

So there are numerous reasons for the blocks, and the cause is not always immediately clear. On the Commanders’ block Monday night, Payne plowed forward in the gap between long snapper Scott Daly and left guard Jonah Jackson – known as the “A” gap between the center and guard – to get close enough to make the block. Teammate Javon Kinlaw, lined up immediately to Payne’s right, pushed ahead into Jackson and extended his left arm. Payne was credited with the block.

“Nothing that we weren’t expecting,” Smythe said. “I obviously haven’t watched the film. But it looked like they just made a good play in the middle, there in the ‘A’ gap.”

During the game, the Bears did their best to diagnose the problem on the sideline so they could attempt to address it. Moody said he didn’t make an in-game adjustment because he didn’t know immediately what had gone wrong on the blocked kick.

“Honestly, I can’t really tell,” Moody said. “I’m looking down at the ball. I can’t see the protection or whatever is going on. Obviously I’ll try to hit a higher kick if needed. But you’ve got to always think about the next kick, not think about the previous kick. And I knew that our guys would come through and we’d have great protection, a great operation and all I had to do is just kick it straight.”

That’s precisely what happened on the game-winner.

Moody had been released by the San Francisco 49ers after missing two field goals in the season opener, one of which was blocked. He was signed by the Bears to their practice squad and was a last-minute fill-in Monday for injured kicker Cairo Santos. Tailback D’Andre Swift said he introduced himself to Moody on the sideline during the game. But the rainy night ended with Moody being lifted off the ground by his celebrating teammates.

“It’s a pretty cool series of events,” Moody said. “A couple days ago, I didn’t know I was playing. To getting lifted up by my teammates, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m really glad I got to share that moment with them.”