Tag: missed kicks

Dustin Colquitt weighs in on Chiefs K Harrison Butker’s missed kicks

Former #Chiefs P Dustin Colquitt weighed in on the cause behind Harrison Butker’s recent wave of missed kicks.

Do the Kansas City Chiefs have a kicker problem or do they have a holder problem? A former member of the team who has some expertise in the subject thinks it’s the latter.

In the Week 15 win over the Houston Texans, Harrison Butker missed an extra point and a field goal during regulation. Butker has now missed three extra points on the season, but he’s also missed five field goals, which is a new single-season high. The missed kicks adding up are certainly a problem, but what exactly is to blame? There has been some concern that it could be lingering effects of Butker’s early-season ankle injury.

According to former Chiefs punter and holder Dustin Colquitt, Butker isn’t to blame for the misses. Responding to a tweet from 810 Sports Radio’s Soren Petro, Colquitt called out fellow punter Tommy Townsend, who is also the Chiefs’ holder.

“Watch the holds & try saying that again,” Colquitt wrote on Twitter. “On the extra points the laces (are) facing the sidelines. He’s screwed him all year.”

Now if you’re not familiar with the NFL kicking game, the rule of thumb is that the laces of the football should always be pointing outward and away from the kicker’s foot. If the laces are pointing toward the sideline, they’re not as far outward as they could be. Ideally, you want the laces pointing toward your target so that you can get the most consistent flat surface area when your foot contacts the ball.

The laces on the missed extra point were, in fact, facing the sideline.

Colquitt again came to Butker’s defense in response to a tweet from former Chiefs WR Marc Boerigter.

“He’s an exceptional punter,” Colquitt wrote. “If you look back at the holds on the extra point, the laces are facing the sidelines, and on the missed 50+ yarder he pulled the ball to him at the last second and forced the ball to go to the right -he’s been missing the spot all year.”

Perhaps Dave Toub needs to get Colquitt in the building to work with Townsend on his holding.

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Cowboys re-sign K Lirim Hajrullahu to practice squad after Zuerlein’s Week 1 misses

Jerry Jones, Mike McCarthy, and John Fassel say they’re confident in Zuerlein. But they’ve brought Lirim Hajrullahu back just the same. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys’ decision-makers maintain that they have confidence in kicker Greg Zuerlein. But that doesn’t mean they won’t hedge their bets, too.

The team is reportedly re-signing Lirim Hajrullahu to the practice squad after Zuerlein went 3-for-5 in Week 1 field goals, including a missed PAT in the 31-29 loss to Tampa Bay.

Hajrullahu had filled in for the Cowboys during the preseason as Zuerlein rehabbed from back surgery. The former CFL All-Star booted two extra points in the team’s third preseason game versus Houston and got no field goal chances. He was cut after less than a week with the club, once Zuerlein was finally ready to resume his duties.

On Monday, special teams coordinator John Fassel told reporters that missing all but the final two weeks of camp was not a factor in Zuerlein’s misses Thursday night, even though his first missed field goal- on his first attempt of the season- was from a distance that’s shorter than an extra-point try.

And Zuerlein didn’t just barely miss the mark. The 31-yard kick wasn’t even close.

He went on to hit the upright minutes later on a point-after-touchdown try.

 

“Obviously, you’d like to see him make those kicks,” head coach Mike McCarthy said after the game. “You get in a game like that, you need all the points you can get.”

Zuerlein also missed a 60-yard-attempt as the first half came to a close.

The veteran himself refused to attribute the misses to rust but took blame for the loss, saying, “If I do my job, we win that game.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t quite as harsh the next day in discussing the two-point margin of defeat.

“The loss isn’t to be blamed on the kicker. But still, if we had had some execution on [some] of those kicks, it might have made a big difference here,” he told 105.3 The Fan.

But he admitted that Zuerlein’s absence from the team’s summer work is worth noting and may leave the team at less than full strength in that department.

“I felt like we really paid the price of not having our kicker in training camp,” he explained. “I look back and when you don’t have a kicker that’s real active in training camp, you may be kidding yourself in early ball games, ‘Is he really ready to go?'”

Jones, Fassel, and McCarthy have all outwardly expressed confidence that Zuerlein is their man.

But Monday’s move to bring Hajrullahu back into the fold may suggest that the kicker they call “Greg the Leg” is on somewhat shaky footing.

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