The New England Patriots are sitting pretty at 6-1 thanks in part to a dominant offense, defense, and the return of star quarterback Tom Brady. There is however one unit on the team, or rather one player, that isn’t doing too well this season.
Patriots’ kicker Stephen Gostkowski knows that he stinks right now. He came out and said just as much.
“Right now, I just stink and I need to figure out how to get better. It’s not working out and kind of piling on. But [I’ll] hold my head high, keep working hard and keep doing the best I can as long as they keep giving me opportunities,” Gostkowski said.
How much has Gostkowski stunk this year? Well, he’s 9-for-12 on field goals, good for a 75% conversation rate. That’s nearly 12% lower than his career average on field goal attempts of 86.9%.
If Gostkowski continues to convert just 75% of his attempts, it would be his lowest conversation rate ever. Twice before has Gostkowski been in the 70% range converting 76.9% in his rookie season in 2006 and 76.9% again in just eight games in 2010. Gostkowski came into the year having converted 91% of his kicks or higher in three consecutive seasons. His career high was two years ago in 2014 when he went 35-37 for a 94.6% field goal percentage.
He’s also missed a pair of extra points this season. Coming into 2016, he had just missed one point after during his career – way back during his rookie season of 2006.
“I’m not scared to screw up. I’ve screwed up plenty of times in my career. It’s kind of piling on right now,” Gostkowski said. “In my position, you only get so many opportunities and that’s part of it mentally, taking advantage of the opportunities you get. I know that’s the deal coming in. News flash, this is my 11th year doing it.”
During the preseason, Gostkowski missed two field goals against Carolina, which may have been a sign of things to come. However, during Week 1 against Arizona, the kicker nailed three field goals including one from 53.
“Personally, I don’t talk about why things go wrong. Obviously, there’s something going on,” Gostkowski said. “I’m going to work my hardest to fix it. This is my job. I take it seriously. No one feels worse about screwing up than I do. It stinks to come in when you win and only talk about the one bad play you have, but that’s the nature of the position. You deal with it, you move on. If you don’t, that’s how it is. I’ve always held my head high and I will always go out there with confidence no matter if I miss 100 in a row.
While Gostkowski isn’t afraid to admit his mistakes, his coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady reassured Gostkowski they still has confidence in their kicker.
“Nobody works harder than Steve does. He is a very talented player. He is mentally tough. We’ll work through it,” Belichick said.
“I just think you show support and encouragement. He’s a great kicker. He’ll find his rhythm, I don’t think anyone is really worried about that,” Brady said in a radio interview with WEEI in Boston. “He’s one of the best kickers who ever played the game. I have 100 percent confidence he’ll find his rhythm.”
The Patriots are slated to face the Buffalo Bills this Sunday on the road. New England’s only loss of the season was at home on October 2nd against Buffalo by a score of 16-0.
