FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The NFL, in its continuing attempt to make all things equal, has established an experiment for the first two preseason games this year: point-after-touchdown kicks will be snapped from the 15-yard line, not the 2.
The belief among some NFL officials is the PAT kick has become too easy. And after last year’s results, when kickers missed only five of 1,261 PAT attempts (a 99.6 percent success rate), you can see why.
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Stephen Gostkowski, who led the NFL in scoring last year with 158 points – a New England Patriots record – doesn’t seem to care where he kicks.
“As long as kicking is still a big part of the game,” he said, “they can move it to whatever they want to. It’s going to be equal across the board for every kicker.”
Gostkowski simply wants a chance to try out the new rule Friday night when the Patriots play the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots didn’t attempt a PAT kick in last week’s 23-6 loss at Washington.
“Hopefully,” he said.
Gostkowski, 30, is coming off his finest season since the Patriots drafted him in the fourth round in 2006 to replace Adam Vinatieri. He missed only three field goals – from 43, 55 and 48 yards – and was perfect on 44 PAT kicks. It was the third time he has led the league in scoring.
He was so good last year that the Patriots never considered he would miss. Before a late-season game at Baltimore, special teams star Matthew Slater said, “I don’t even think about whether or not he’s going to make field goals at this point. We just figure that’s money in the bank because he’s just been so reliable this year, so consistent, as he has the whole time I’ve been here.”
That attitude has carried over – he has no competition in training camp and no one has asked Coach Bill Belichick about Gostkowski since training camp opened July 24.
In watching Gostkowski practice Wednesday, with the wind pushing the heavy rain sideways, it’s obvious he cares greatly about his craft. While it was a light workout day for him, he still took the time to carefully plot each kick – holding out his right arm to gauge the wind, then calculating how much to push the ball and how high to kick it.
“We play in New England, where you’re going to get some bad weather,” he said. “We practice outside pretty much in everything unless it’s lightning. It just makes it easier to deal with in a game.”
The weather, he said, “makes your job a lot harder but it doesn’t make it impossible. You’ve just got to keep your focus and your confidence.”
Gostkowski has the best field-goal percentage (.856, 208 of 243) in Patriots history and the most 50-yard field goals in team history with 12. He kicked five last year.
Not surprisingly, he works year-round on his kicking, a big difference from when he attended the University of Memphis. There he was also a pitcher on the baseball team and didn’t start kicking until summer workouts.
“I think I work a little smarter now,” he said. “Sometimes that correlates with pitching. You can do too much. You want to work smart and make sure you get something out of it, not just going out and swinging your leg.
“I’ve just learned to focus and get better quality repetitions, rather than just going out and kicking 200 kicks a day. You don’t want to tire yourself out or create bad habits. You’ve just got to be smart about it.”
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