Yet, when Gostkowski missed one in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Denver Broncos — which snapped his streak of 12 consecutive successful kicks, the second-longest stretch of his career — the errant boot becomes magnified.
In a sense, kickers might have the most thankless job in the NFL.
“I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to play and to kick,” Gostkowski said Monday, referring to the criticism kickers face in such situations. “That’s part of what you have to go through, and I won’t think twice about it after today. I’ve gone and looked at it. It’s not going to affect the way I practice next week or I kick next week. Each week is different. You feel different. It’s just something that happens. You deal with the good and the bad.”
Gostkowski’s 40-yard try in the third quarter hooked to the left, and it allowed the Broncos to stay within a 17-10 margin. It was a strange result for Gostkowski, who doesn’t typically get a right-to-left flight pattern on his kicks, and he couldn’t figure out exactly why he missed, even after watching film.
“I really don’t know,” said Gostkowski, a 2006 fourth-round pick out of Memphis. “I looked at it [Monday]. It looked like I did the same exact thing as every kick. It just moved to the left a little bit, and it’s just one of those things. Maybe I need to concentrate a little harder [or] do a little more work during the week. I felt good going out there. Just, sometimes you miss, and you can’t really explain it. It’s not going to change what I do — my approach to the week, my approach going out there. I felt real confident out there [Sunday]. I was crushing my kickoffs. I made that long one, [a career-high 53-yarder in the first quarter]. Then I go out there, I felt like I was going to make it, and I didn’t. It hooked left on me at the end. Usually, I don’t get that kind of movement, and you’ve just got to chalk it up as a missed opportunity and move on.”
Gostkowski entered the season with an 85.6 percent conversion rate in his career, which was the fourth-highest among active kickers with at least three years of experience. He has made 12-of-14 kicks this season (85.7 percent) and 89 of 104 in his career (85.6).
He said the miss did not affect him.
“Once I miss, I don’t sit around and sulk about it,” Gostkowski said. “I’d be doing the team a disservice if I just sat around crying about it all day and let it ruin the next one. It could have just as easily been me out there kicking that game-winner in overtime. [Broncos kicker Matt Prater] missed one earlier, and he came back and bounced back. He did a good job. I missed one, and the only thing I could think about was I hope I get another chance, and I hope that we win, and I hope it didn’t hurt the team. It ended up hurting the team a little bit. It kind of makes it hurt a little more when you lose, and you have a negative play that didn’t help the team win. Then again, it doesn’t happen to me very often, and I don’t plan on making it a trend.”
Gostkowski has a soccer background and used that to his advantage when he started kicking for the football team in high school. Even still, he went to Memphis on a partial baseball scholarship and walked on to the football team, which eventually rewarded him with a full scholarship. Because of his unique road to the NFL, Gostkowski understands one missed field goal isn’t the end of the world, and the low points can be much, much lower than this.
“I’ve missed plenty of kicks in my career, going back to the first day I ever started it,” Gostkowski said. “I missed like 10 field goals my senior year of high school and didn’t get any scholarship offers. I’ve gone through a lot worse than this. It’s just one game. We’ve got plenty of season left. I’ve made a lot of good kicks this year so far, and I plan on making a lot more.”
