The Arizona Cardinals' valiant comeback against the San Francisco 49ers certainly made head coach Kyle Shanahan and the rest of his squad feel a bit more nervous than they should have felt.
And they likely wouldn't have been nervous, had kicker Eddy Piñeiro not missed two extra points over the course of 60 minutes.
After going a perfect 8-of-8 on extra-point tries over the opening two weeks, Piñeiro's two misses in Week 3 didn't just open up a window for Arizona to attempt a comeback—the Cardinals trailed by only two points late in the fourth quarter—but they also forced fans (and others) to recall the failures of the kicker Piñeiro replaced just over a year ago: Jake Moody.
Ultimately, Shanahan's offense picked Piñeiro up with some late-game heroics, leading to the 36-30 victory, but the specialist's shortcomings in the game are certainly something to monitor going forward.
Eddy Piñeiro missed XPs hopefully won't cost 49ers games
One of the ironic aspects to Piñeiro's game is he's had a trend of being almost automatic on field goals but not so much on extra-point tries, as FanSided's Adam Fromal pointed out in light of Sunday's grimacing performance:
Last season, Eddy Pineiro finished fourth in KVA despite missing a league-high five extra points in a continuation of a career-long trend. In Week 3, the San Francisco specialist made a 57-yarder to close the first half but yanked a PAT outside left and then doinked the next one. Only Tom Dempsey, Joey Slye and Bob Thomas have worse career PAT KVA.
That 57-yarder proved vital to San Francisco's winning efforts, yes. But the two misses even forced Shanahan into a modest joke after the game when asked about Piñeiro's missed extra points.
"I was going to probably give him a game ball or something, but he ruined that with the two extra points missed," Shanahan told reporters.
When the Cardinals were staging their second-half comeback, the Fox Sports broadcast made multiple overtures about the missed extra points, and even the casual fan could observe how precarious a two-point lead was instead of the should-be four-point advantage in the fourth quarter.
Again, the 49ers offense picked its kicker up. And Piñeiro still deserves credit for that long field goal just before halftime.
However, with recollections of Moody not aged long enough, it's fair to worry a bit whether or not additional Piñeiro missed extra points could ultimately cost the Niners a game or two later on this season, which could prove to be disastrous amid a still-very-competitive NFC West.
It's not a red flag. But it's certainly something San Francisco must watch.
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