All a big leg kicker does is get you in trouble

[Nav22]

If their kicker had been healthy they would have kicked a field goal in the last 2 mins of the game to make it a 2 possession game instead of going for another TD (and failing)

Fair point.

 

[Hardline]

Justin Tucker is not just a big leg kicker. He is 72% over 50 yards and 95% on all others - He is the exception to the rule. Obviously the best there is.

Hook Em

 

[blueblood70]

I don't believe your dismissive tone is going to win you any followers to your opinion.

I was a kicker at level just below the pros, and this has been my experience, and how I continue to coach younger kickers to the approach to the game.

1. You are not on the squad because you can bomb it away from 55+ yards 50% of the time. That won't get you on any squad in a competitive situation. And I'm not talking about internal on the team competition. I mean being on the squad because you can help the team win. You are there because you displayed a level of consistency your coaches and your team mates can rely upon in game time to seal and secure the points needed to add to a cumulative number display on an electronic device.

2. Kicks you miss may not affect the wins or losses from a binary perspective, but football is not a singular binary game of just the final number on the scoreboard. It's a lot of messy stuff in between. Great plays, bad plays, penalties, swearing, dirty play, hard hits and all the nasty stuff that gets emotions going and tempers flaring. Tough games tend to exhibit this. What I teach young kickers is to be the calming influence. Interact with your team mates. Show your skills, and put yourself out there as one of them in respecting the hard effort they put in to gaining territory by hitting the consistent makeable kicks within your physical ability.

The best thing a kicker can do is to be reliable. When you jog onto the field in your clean jersey your will be passing a lot of guys gassed and frustrated at the prior events that have led to fourth down and them conceding the field to you. As the hoodie would say, "Just do your damn job!" And I preface this by saying the hoodie would not say that on the 58 yarders. This year I wonder how much private swearing he has done with his coaching staff about Nick Folk and his (4) missed PATs. You can't tell based on what the entire league knows about Belichick that he isn't wondering at times when this will bite him in the ***.

3. When you don't make expected kicks the emotional loss of the points typically are much more than how they register on the scoreboard. Take a look at the eyes of the players on the sidelines when a kicker misses a makeable kick. Oddly enough it is the flip side emotion of when a player makes an incredibly long and improbable kick. The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. If you don't think a missed kick and the affect it has on the team is not real, then I can't help you. In a tight game or one where you are not scoring at will it is a real heartbreaker for the players and gives ulcers to coaches.

So did Zuerlein lose the games where we lost within the points margins of his failed kicks that were makeable? In the world of kicking where I was playing, and how I council players to approach kicking I say "Yes". He has the one situation in the entire game where the rules and conditions gives him as a player the highest controlled environment to be successful on a regular basis. Placekicking. So when you don't make them that registers as a loss to me. Losses on individual kicking plays contribute to losses on the score board. This directly affects winning or losing when cumulatively added up.

I'm fairly certain in some of these games Greg has gone home, and taken a different stance to his role in the defeat than what your opinion espouses.

sorry disagree whole heartedly hes not perfect nor has been any player or total team play or coaching through this losing streak..the kicker is the LEAST of our issues.

moving on

coaches agree with me and i them..all that matters. I win no mater how long a diatribe you type in reply..hes still our kicker so im correct.

leaves fans who dont agree with me on very small island as gregs still our kicker until hes not..

your opinions are invalid as we speak as reality is Greg's still our kicker tonight.

MOVING ON from the matrix that is this place full of dreamers who believe they make decisions on team rosters from keyboard and know more then staff full of actual professional coaches..

 

[blueblood70]

what no GZ talk today odd how that happens..

 

[blueblood70]

come on guys 3 for 3 xps 2-2 fgs one 55, and 5 KOs all touchbacks..raised up his average after this one..21 of 26 but believe 3 of those are over 58 yard attempts shouldnt count so not as bad as you al make it.,.