[jwplayer 1vROLFUW-ThvAeFxT]
Stephen Hauschka has been a oft-reliable during his Bills career. Against the Cleveland Browns in Week 10, he was not.
Hauschka missed from 34 yards and again from 53 yards, the second of which was a game-tying kick attempt with under a minute left. It missed.
On Wednesday, Hauschka told reporters going into the game he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.
“Physically I feel good… mentally, technically, this job is… you’ve got to be on his every single week. Sometimes you head into a game not feeling, for whatever reason, not feeling ideal, and most of the time you kind of get away with it. Sometimes you don’t… that’s kind of how I feel after last week, so this week I just have to do everything normal and get back into this game and the routine,” Hauschka said.
“If you kick long enough in this league, you’re going to have an off day, you’re going to have an off game,” Hauschka added.
But the 34-year-old hasn’t seemed himself for some time. He’s missed his last five-straight kicks from 50-plus yards.
Still, he insisted he’s still holding his head high.
“You can paint it however you want. They haven’t gone in recently, but I’ve still got plenty of confidence. I make them in practice all the time,” Hauschka said.
In practice is one thing, in a game is another. The Bills won’t potentially lose a spot in the postseason picture thanks to a missed kick at practice. There’s a decent chance the Bills will have to rely on Hauschka at some point down the stretch.
As now, he still have his head coach’s confidence if things come down to his foot.
“Got a lot of confidence in Stephen and obviously it didn’t work out but, we’ll remain confident in Stephen as we move forward here,” Sean McDermott said.
Hauschka is currently hitting 61.5% of his kicks, a career low. He’s missed all three of his attempts from over 50 yards this season.
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