Who has missed most field goals in an NFL game?

Missed field goals in an NFL game can typically make the difference between a win and a loss. The job of the kicker is one of the most stressful, yet important for the outcome of the game.

Kickers that don't have high success rates don't typically remain on an NFL roster for very long. Place kickers and punters are also specialized roles in modern football whereas in the 1960s and 1970s, they may have just had one member of the team do both.

In the history of the National Football League, George Blanda missed the most field goals.

Blanda, who was a kicker, punter, and quarterback, had 304 missed field goals in his career. He played for 27 seasons, beginning in 1949 with the Chicago Bears. He also played for the Baltimore Colts, Houston Oilers, and the Oakland Raiders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

Blanda had 2,002 points scored, which ranks him seventh for most points scored in the National Football League.

Cleveland Browns kicker Lou Groza has the second-most missed field goals with 217 from the entirety of his career. But, despite the over 200 missed field goals, he was still an All-Pro four times and made nine Pro Bowls.

To put those numbers into perspective, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker is in his 11th NFL season and has only missed 34 field goals in his career. However, kickers in today's game are solely responsible for kicks and don't play alternate positions as the kickers decades ago.

Which NFL game had the most missed field goals in a game?

The NFL game that saw the most missed field goals took place on 11 December, 1966. It was a matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Falcons.

St. Louis Cardinals kicker Jim Bakken attempted seven field goals and made just one, he also scored just one extra point.

Jim Bakken's Cardinals lost 16-10 but were still 8-4-1 on the season. Despite featuring in a game where he missed six field goals, Bakken was named to the Pro Bowl four times and is a two-time All-Pro.

The Bakken-Anderson Award was actually named in his honor and is given to the best kicker in the Big Ten conference each season. Bakken is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and played college football for the Badgers.

Bakken played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1962 to 1978. He held the record for most games played for the Cardinals franchise with 234, before wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald broke the franchise record in September 2019.