It's Time to Be Concerned About Gostkowski

[PatsFans.com Article]

It's Time to Be Concerned About Gostkowski

Lee Schechter

Let's face it, as Patriots fans we are spoiled. We are horribly spoiled. But, that's a good thing.

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[mihap]

If you ever play soccer than you know its prety difficult to contain the same kicking in free kicks. And especially with these new touchbacks where he is not firing missiles in the endzone in kickoffs, but high balls to goal line.
Cant blame on Gost to much cause its not that easy.

 

[nabwong]

Gostkowski has the yips. At least I think he has it. It happens to the best athletes. Golfers suddenly lose the feel of their swing. Musicians just find it tough to play the right notes. Pitchers just feel their arms are out of control. It happens to those people with repetitive jobs.

I've had it. It will take him a while to return to form. That is IF we allow him to. Knowing it's a cut throat business, I'm worried he might not have the luxury of time.

Or worse, he could have focal dystonia. I doubt it. Praying for him.

 

[thecore762]

Time to spend a 1st round pick on a kicker like the raiders
I kid...

 

[mgteich]

The new style of kicking on kickoffs may be having its toll on FG and XP consistency. Ghost is the best in the business in the old style of kicking. OVERALL, he may be the best at the new style of kicking (no team has past the 26 yard line). Is the occasional inconsistency worth the extra yards on almost every kickoff?

 

[ctpatsfan1]

I find it interesting that there are actual people out there who think that its time to consider bringing in someone to replace Ghostkowski. Note I am not saying any of the posters in this thread have said that, but if you tool around the internet and listen to the talking heads you will see some who are saying that they need to bring in someone to compete against Ghost. Are you kidding me? What unemployed hack is going to be as good? There is a reason they are unemployed and currently not kicking in the league. Patriots fans truly are a spoiled bunch and Lord knows what would happen if BB had a losing season.....would you be calling for his head.....everyone just needs to relax and let Ghost work through his issues right now.

 

[Froob]

Never shoulda let Adam go! BB must go!

 

[IllegalContact]

I heard some people talking like Ryan is leaning the ball too much towards the kicker.......I cannot confirm or deny this, but there was consensus between the caller and gresh and zo

 

[archstanton543]

Don't tell me what to do.

 

[RobertWeathers]

The new style of kicking on kickoffs may be having its toll on FG and XP consistency. Ghost is the best in the business in the old style of kicking. OVERALL, he may be the best at the new style of kicking (no team has past the 26 yard line). Is the occasional inconsistency worth the extra yards on almost every kickoff?

Agreed. I posted last week re: Gost that what he is going through is similar to what a golfer does as they transition from using one type of club or golf shot to the next or tweaking a mechanical aspect of their swing. Different swing speeds and tempo. Different setup. Different feel. Different alignment.

I dont think the missed XP in the AFCCG is the root of the problem. I think during the offseason, he tweaked his mechanics to execute on the short kickoffs and hes having trouble adjusting his swing motion or whatever from kick to kick. So the point is that I think its a muscle memory thing and not a "Gost is a headcase" concern.

I'm confident he'll work it out.

 

[aluminum seats]

Never shoulda let Adam go! BB must go!

I know you're kidding and Ghost has been terrific, so this isn't meant to support that, but man, Adam V is about to break the consecutive FG record at 43. Guy's amazing.

 

[brdmaverick]

Extra Point misses aren't the same they used to be when they were 12 yard kicks.

Now at 33 yards misses will happen from time to time (in fact, there were four other misses on XP yesterday).

I agree though that this is not an isolated incident and has been a general trend of inaccuracy (even the game clinching field goal JUST snuck by the upright). He'll figure it out. I'm not worried.....yet

 

[Tuck]

I don't have the stats to back this up but it feels like his misses are more often than not when the score is close in tight games like this one was for three quarters.

 

[jah]

Yes, he is in fact doing badly. However, we've seen this before in 2012. He'll bounce back.

 

[pwes]

The new style of kicking on kickoffs may be having its toll on FG and XP consistency. Ghost is the best in the business in the old style of kicking. OVERALL, he may be the best at the new style of kicking (no team has past the 26 yard line). Is the occasional inconsistency worth the extra yards on almost every kickoff?

This is actually a good point. I even noted yesterday in the game thread why they were kicking into the endzone instead of inside the 10 like they previously had been doing. Could have been a result of the team realizing this and trying to correct it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

This is not an insignificant topic for a team that won three of its four SB's by three points, one by a FG from 48 yards with the clock at 0:00 and another by a FG from 41 yards with the clock at 0:04, and that even got the chance to win its first SB by tying its Divisional Playoff game with a FG from 45 yards into the teeth of a blizzard with the clock at 0:27.

So, yeah, this isn't paranoia but a legitimate question. It won't rise to the level where we should be "concerned" until they lose a game this season because of a missed Extra Point or FG of less than 55 yards under normal weather conditions.