As the NFL’s greatest year of field-goal kicking unfolds, San Francisco’s David Akers has already earned special mention. Akers became only the fourth kicker to ever make a 63-yard field goal, hitting it in a season-opening victory over Green Bay. That momentous play foreshadowed the unprecedented accuracy numbers being posted by his peers. According to STATS LLC, the league-wide field-goal percentage through the season’s first five weeks stood at 88.6 percent. The NFL record is 84.5 set in 2008. The record-setting pace extends to the most difficult attempts. Kickers are connecting on 80.9 percent of field goals tries from 40-49 yards and 70.7 percent from 50-plus. Since those categories were kept since 1967, the best respective marks for a season are 74.5 percent (2008) and 64.3 percent (2011). Akers has made 10 of his 13 field-goal tries (76.9 percent) with misses from 55 and 40 yards as well as one blocked 43-yarder. While that puts Akers below the league average, the 49ers have the comfort of knowing that the 37-year-old has proven one of the NFL’s most tried-and-true specialists under pressure during his 14 NFL seasons. Akers spoke with FOXSports.com earlier this week at team headquarters about the state of… Read full this story
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