It has only been a few days that Chase McLaughlin has been the starting kicker for the Indianapolis Colts, but he got his first taste of game action in the 38-25 loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Filling in for the injured Adam Vinatieri, McLaughlin was strong throughout the majority of the game—except when it came to a 47-yard attempt in the fourth quarter.
Hitting off the right goal post, McLaughlin missed his only kick on the day. The rookie explained what happened on the missed kick following the game.
“I played it exactly the way I wanted to. The wind just died a little bit on me and it happened to fade right instead of left.,” McLaughlin told reporters. “I played it exactly how I wanted to. I thought it was in right when it came off, I hit it the exact same way as the 50; going the same way earlier in the game, just got a little unlucky.”
Outside of the crucial missed kick, McLaughlin was smooth in his field-goal attempts and gave no doubt on the extra-point attempts. He wound up making two field goals while converting three extra points.
Missing a field goal and losing by three points are never two things that can be spun in a positive way. But head coach Frank Reich said after the game he came away impressed with his performance.
“I thought he did well, obviously that one kick was – the first kick, the 50-yarder was not an easy kick,” Reich said. “A little bit of a breeze in the face, but hit it well so I thought he looked good.”
It will be interesting to see what the Colts do. McLaughlin probably showed enough to warrant holding the job over Vinatieri. However, Vinatieri is likely to return to the starting role upon the conclusion of his knee injury—if that knee injury heals by the time the season is over.
Regardless, the missed field goal wound up having an impact on the outcome, but McLaughlin seemed to have impressed his head coach.