Matt Ammendola isn't to blame for the Houston Texans loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars

The Houston Texans lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars to the tune of 24-21 in a game where the Texans fell behind by 10 late into the second half. A stunning comeback nearly happened, however, with rookie phenom C.J. Stroud scoring his third touchdown of the contest to pull the Texans within three of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Unfortunately, the Texans kicker, Matt Ammendola missed two field goals of 50+ yards during the contest, one of which with 30 seconds to go in the contest. The second one was nearly 60 yards, and Ammendola nearly got the ball across the field goal bar but the kick dinked off the bar and fell short of the intended target.

It was a heartbreaking way to end the game, but the kicker isn't the one who's responsible for the loss. Sure, his six points would've given the Texans the game, in theory, but we have no idea how that would change the outcome of the game, and how the Jags would've adapted to that

More importantly, if one play breaks you at the end of the game, like a missed field goal, then you failed a few dozen times before getting to that point. At the point, the kicker is nothing more than the scapegoat for everyones else's mistakes. He's an eraser, a "break glass in case of emergency" type of situation.

He didn't fail to sack Trevor Lawrence, he didn't commit a bunch of penalties to erase huge gains. He didn't call the wrong plays or fail to break 100 yards rushing. He didn't lose the game for the Texans. The Texans as a whole, including the special teams players, lost the games for the Texans. Ammendola deserves as much blame, or as little, as anyone else.

Just because he didn't bail the team out doesn't mean that the Texans were playing well enough to win the game prior to the kick. If they were, they wouldn't have needed him in the first place.