There is nothing wrong with calling out Gost when it makes sense. Up until this year there really wasn't a reason and that is the main point here. And yes there are 2 types of posters.
1. The intelligent posters who look at Gosts numbers and are able to determine his performance and comparison to his peers by taking into accounts factors such as how many attempts he has compared to his peers and what environment he is kicking in compared to his peers. You know, actual football data/statistics/objective stuff.
2. The other type who just repeat over and over that Gost isnt good etc and wont listen to anyone who tries to prove he dosent and then this mob mentality develops and starts attacking the people trying to defend Gost who are looking at all of the variables.
Its funny the people who actually do research on something like this (you know, the things that make this forum great) get attacked and called homers and Gost apologists. But notice how none of these posters doing the attacking ever do any research.
Interesting...
The issue I have with this post is that it embodies the very things you're accusing the "anti-Gost" crowd of.
"... there are 2 types of posters. The intelligent posters who look at Gost numbers ..."
This implies that those who reach a conclusion different than the one you've reached (or a conclusion different than the conclusion the pro-Gost crowd has reached, generally) are not intelligent. And additionally, implying an "us vs. them" mentality, and creating a binary, either with him or against him dichotomy. You don't really seem to be leaving the door open for someone to have a dissenting opinion.
"and then this mob mentality develops"
Which of course has in fact developed in the opposite direction too; for every person criticizing Gost without evidence, there are just as many defending him in an equally lazy way, mob-like way.
There's a middle ground of thoughtful exchange here, and the majority on both sides are not hitting the mark, IMHO.
As for my thoughts?
I felt like, starting about 4-5 years ago, Gost seemed to lose his technique, in a totally subjective, eye-test sense. I really have no objective basis for this, but around the time the kickoff was moved forward and the XP was moved back, Gost seemed to start clipping the ball more, as opposed to driving his field goals; his kicks seem to drift more, and his makes were occasionally trailing off late and sneaking in.
Additionally, we started to notice a trend: he seemed shaky early season and in the postseason, seeming to miss an XP or two during those two windows of the season.
Ever since then I didn't entirely trust him kicking the ball, although statistically, yes, aggregated over the course of each season he's been very good.
This season mirrored the aforementioned trend, but he hasn't shaken off the early-season yips as he generally does, and the misses have continued frequently enough for most to acknowledge that he is struggling at present.
The other element to this whole discussion is the holder, which in past seasons had largely been blamed for Gost's struggles, but we never got a genuine feel for what percentage of Gost's misses were actually the fault of the holder. I think we've reached a point now where Gost himself has admitted the issue (insofar as this season) is largely his own.
All that said, he's the kicker of the team and I fully support him and want to see him succeed. I tend to think that he's the best option relative to the FAs out there. We shall see.
