Goskowski under pressure

[spacecrime]

Pressure? Forget superbowl winning kicks. That's nothing to what Gostkowski had handed to him this morning. Had he missed this one, he'd be a rookie in the doghouse with every vet on the team:

At the end of practice, Belichick appeared to be brokering a deal with the team. If the rookie kicker Gostkowski could make a field goal, the team would be rewarded in some fashion. That got the players excited, and when Gostkowski made the kick, players were celebrating.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

 

[dryheat44]

Pressure? Forget superbowl winning kicks. That's nothing to what Gostkowski had handed to him this morning. Had he missed this one, he'd be a rookie in the doghouse with every vet on the team:

At the end of practice, Belichick appeared to be brokering a deal with the team. If the rookie kicker Gostkowski could make a field goal, the team would be rewarded in some fashion. That got the players excited, and when Gostkowski made the kick, players were celebrating.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

Pales next to making Light catch a punt a couple years ago.

 

[Pats726]

Pales next to making Light catch a punt a couple years ago.

But the Light catch was at the end of TC..not minicamp..

 

[smg93]

That's a classic coaching move. Parcells would have done that for sure too. I know when I used to play basketball, at the end of practice we always had situations like this where all of us would shoot free throws and the number of misses equated to the number of suicide's or monkey drills we had to run.

 

[Richter]

Beautiful. The kid is going to be huge in replacing Adam. Grammatica can start packing his bags. I'm really getting the feeling this draft is going to be legendary, we'll be talking about it in 10 years as the draft that brought the Pats another 2 (or 3) Superbowl titles.

 

[shmessy]

Pales next to making Light catch a punt a couple years ago.

Wrong. FAR more pressure on Gotkowski today than on Light back then. You can't even compare it.

Light was a veteran who had already made his mark and was doing something outside of his expertise. No pressure there.

Gostko is a nobody right now and was being told today to present his passport or else the vets have to work out in the heat more.

Good for the kid!

 

[maverick4]

re

I'm really getting the feeling this draft is going to be legendary, we'll be talking about it in 10 years as the draft that brought the Pats another 2 (or 3) Superbowl titles.

Same here. This is the ideal case, but we might have just drafted Rice, Craig, Jones, and Cofer. I feel especially confident about Jackson and Maroney.
.

 

[Water Boy]

Pressure? Forget superbowl winning kicks. That's nothing to what Gostkowski had handed to him this morning. Had he missed this one, he'd be a rookie in the doghouse with every vet on the team:

At the end of practice, Belichick appeared to be brokering a deal with the team. If the rookie kicker Gostkowski could make a field goal, the team would be rewarded in some fashion. That got the players excited, and when Gostkowski made the kick, players were celebrating.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

I wonder how long the kick was?

 

[dryheat44]

Wrong. FAR more pressure on Gotkowski today than on Light back then. You can't even compare it.

Light was a veteran who had already made his mark and was doing something outside of his expertise. No pressure there.

Gostko is a nobody right now and was being told today to present his passport or else the vets have to work out in the heat more.

Good for the kid!

I respectfully disagree.

1) We haven't heard of any negative consequences if Gost missed. Light had the pressure of running sprints vs. not running sprints at stake on a team that reportedly was divided up to that point.

2) It is far easier for a kicker to kick a field goal than an offensive lineman to try to catch a punt. Gost just had to do what he's done all through college. Light had to do something he'd likely never done before. Catching punts, especially in the wind, is VERY hard to do.

I really didn't want to start an arguement, I was just reminiscing of these Belichick team-building moments. If your point was that Light was in his second year and was already accepted by the team and therefore didn't worry about being disliked, okay, I guess I agree. But I have a hard time imagining the Patriots holding a missed kick in practice against Gost, at least no more than they resent rookies and kickers to begin with.

 

[Tunescribe]

Wrong. FAR more pressure on Gotkowski today than on Light back then. You can't even compare it.

Light was a veteran who had already made his mark and was doing something outside of his expertise. No pressure there.

Gostko is a nobody right now and was being told today to present his passport or else the vets have to work out in the heat more.

Good for the kid!

I agree. I wonder if this particular field goal had any extra degree of difficulty besides the "deal." I wonder how far it was.

 

[PonyExpress]

Very windy day.

 

[Patjew]

That's a classic coaching move. Parcells would have done that for sure too. I know when I used to play basketball, at the end of practice we always had situations like this where all of us would shoot free throws and the number of misses equated to the number of suicide's or monkey drills we had to run.

I was thinking the same thing. I remember one time in H.S. the coach had me shoot a free throw at the end of practice. He told the team they could either do 2 suicides and be done OR they could bet that I would make the free throw and not run any, but if I missed they would have to do 5. Some chose to run the 2. Then I shot and made the free throw. Talking smack to the guys that chose to run the 2 was probably my crowning athletic achievement.

Sorry for the OT post.

 

[drpatriot]

At the end of practice, Belichick appeared to be brokering a deal with the team. If the rookie kicker Gostkowski could make a field goal, the team would be rewarded by not having to run. That got the players excited, and when Gostkowski made the kick, players were celebrating.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

So the reward was not having to run, there WAS a consequence, albeit a small one. :rocker:

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Sorry for the OT post.

You better hope somebody complains about it, or somebody else will complain about nobody complaining about it.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Just to pile onto Richter's point, perhaps this is the 'Shakelton's Adventure' moment of 2006!

A perfect season, anyone? 19-0?

 

[mgcolby]

You better hope somebody complains about it, or somebody else will complain about nobody complaining about it.

I think you just did!

 

[dryheat44]

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

So the reward was not having to run, there WAS a consequence, albeit a small one. :rocker:

Okay, that's good. The initial report left that part out.

 

[mgcolby]

Same here. This is the ideal case, but we might have just drafted Rice, Craig, Jones, and Cofer. I feel especially confident about Jackson and Maroney.
.

I think we should let them get through mini-camp before we start declairing that they may become possible future hall of famers.

 

[Willie55]

Stroke of genius by BB. Already conditioning the kid for pressure kicks and it's only mini-camp.

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Stroke of genius by BB. Already conditioning the kid for pressure kicks and it's only mini-camp.

And bonding him with the rest of the team. Being a kicker (for the most part) sucks from the 'respect' standpoint of the rest of the team (i.e. 'just a kicker')... being a rookie kicker must suck even worse... and being a rookie kicker replacing a legend must suck ten-fold. Belichick is the Jedi Football Mastermind.