I have written about this in the past — how easy it is for NFL teams to expect perfection from their kickers, and then turn their backs on them if they happen to miss.

Blair Walsh could tell you about it.

The Minnesota Vikings kicker missed a 27-yard field goal with 20 seconds to play, allowing the Seattle Seahawks to win the NFC wild-card game 10-9.

For some as-it-happened commentary, check the radio broadcasts of the crucial kick here. And for a sample of the Twitter storm, look here.

Walsh apparently has been around long enough to get that kickers are allowed to cite any factors other than their own horrible-ness, after a missed clutch kick. After the game, he said it was “all his fault”.

Of course it isn’t. It never is.

Let’s enumerate a few reasons.

–Looking at one play in a 60-minute game is simplistic, even if it is a short field goal to give a team a lead in the final minute. What went on the previous 59 minutes and 40 seconds … all of that must be taken into account, but ignoring that in favor of one swing of Walsh’s leg is just wrong.

–This was not a miss on some pleasant afternoon in October. This was in sub-zero Minnesota temperatures, in January, end of the game, and Blair Walsh had been standing on the sidelines for most of the previous three hours. He would have been stiff and cold and also anxious.

–Kickers are all too easy to marginalize and scapegoat. At the NFL level, kickers rarely interact with teammates at practices or in the game. It’s the kicker, almost always the punter (as holder) and the long-snapper. The three of them spend a lot of time with each other. The kicker and punter, however, are not considered real football players by the rest of the team or by coaches. Everyone knows it.

–Coaches are predisposed to dislike kickers for being less than perfect, and Vikings coach Mike Zimmer showed that bias when, after the game, he said of the missed kick: “It’s a chip shot. He’s got to make it.”

–NFL kickers are insanely good, which leads to coaches considering them robotic deliverers of three-point chunks. Check the regular-season numbers. NFL kickers collectively made 104-of-152 this season — from 50-plus yards. Walsh had been 29-of-34 from all ranges, including 6-of-8 from 50-plus. Coaches are shocked when they miss.

–The rest of the Vikings have to take some responsibility. They gave up only 10 points, but all of them came in the fourth quarter. A blown coverage, an Adrian Peterson fumble … those led to a touchdown and field goal that won it for the Seahawks. Also, the Vikings offense consisted of little other than … Blair Walsh, who was 3-for-3 on field goals, before his miss.

–Did we mention it was cold? Almost a record cold. As the holder, Jeff Locke noted, kicking a football in that weather is like kicking a brick, and the tolerances for slightly left and slightly right diminish markedly.

–Locke conceded Walsh was kicking the laces, which is never good. Locke said he should have spun the ball to get the laces out of the way, but he was worried about his ability to do so in that weather. Said Locke: “I’ve got to spin it. Simple as that. In these conditions, it’s very difficult to do, to control the spin. But that’s part of my job. So I’ve got to do it.” He said he and the snapper, Kevin McDermott, are there to “make it look as easy as possible for Blair, and that picture is not the laces staring him in the face.”

The NFL is a league where everyone is dispensable, but kickers are even more so. Coaches see them as interchangeable, then send out their guy and expect him to produce every time. And if he does not, they turn on them immediately.

Blair Walsh at least will not have to deal with angry fans in Minneapolis because he is almost certain to be released. Mike Zimmer is not going to want to see him when the team assembles for training.