Harrison Butker’s return last Sunday was an encouraging sign as he continues to regain strength ahead of the postseason. However, he missed a field goal in the victory over the Cleveland Browns, causing some concern that he may not be healthy enough to be in the lineup.
Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub immediately dismissed that as the reason and laid the blame on his in-game decision, which he explained to reporters on Wednesday.
“I’ll just talk about the miss. I need to do a better job of communicating with the holder and the snapper. You know that we were going to kick the field goal. I just assumed they were together, but they weren’t.” said Toub. “That was my fault. So I mean that that little bit of a change where Harrison’s panicking, where are they? You know? I mean that that has an effect.”
Butker returned after missing several weeks due to surgery on his non-kicking leg, and the Chiefs used two different kickers in his absence.
“So it wasn’t his injury. I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” said Toub. “I just think anything, anytime you get an operation out of sync, like that, whether they have to rush or somebody’s not there, it’s that puts a toll on it, and I think that’s what happened there, you know, I’ll take the glow I was my fault. Get those guys out there. I can’t assume that they’re right together.”
Butker will have a chance to redeem the miss this Saturday back home at Arrowhead Stadium.