Kickers for final 4 NFL playoff teams each have leg up

Kickers for final 4 NFL playoff teams each have leg up

(AP) — Touchdowns are always nice, but clutch kickers are welcome security blankets for NFL offenses, especially in the playoffs.

[...] the fourth team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, has a kicker who booted a league playoff-record six field goals last week in Kansas City.

A second-year player, Boswell already has postseason pedigree.

No kicker left has playoff familiarity like Stephen Gostkowski, who has 20 postseason appearances with the New England Patriots entering the AFC championship game on Sunday against Pittsburgh.

[...] there is Green Bay's Mason Crosby, who enters the NFC championship game Sunday against Atlanta fresh with the confidence of having hit a 51-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Dallas Cowboys last week.

Five missed field goals in regular season were most since missing six in 2012 ...

Hasn't missed a field goal in postseason since a failed 44-yarder on Jan. 10, 2010 in 33-14 loss to Baltimore.

First kicker in NFL history to make two 50-yard field goals in the final 2 minutes of a postseason game. ...