If you asked someone back in 1996 which was more likely to occur: the New England Patriots won’t have kicking issues again until 2020 or bankrupt-then-not casino/hotel owner Donald Trump would be running for a second term as president, the choice would seem pretty obvious.
The Patriots? No kicking issues for 24 years? People would have turned their Discman back on as they walked away laughing out loud (not LOL, that didn’t exist then).
But here were are.
Nick Folk was terrific as a stopgap kicker last year, replacing the Kai Forbath and Mike Nugent after Stephen Gostkowski was injured. This year, that hasn’t been the case.
Folk’s sample size has been small but the results haven’t been pretty.
Against Miami at Gillette Stadium, he practically whiffed on his attempt with six seconds left in the first half, pushing the ball far to the right.
On Sunday in Seattle, Folk missed a 51-yard attempt.
So how does this problem get fixed?
“One thing about Nick is he’s a pro. He’s been doing it a long time. Any adjustment that he may or may not need to make, he’ll make,” Patriots special-teams coordinator Cam Achord said. “We’re confident, obviously, in him, putting him out there, so there’s no lack of that. Just going forward, he has to keep getting better each day and develop consistency.”
Folk said after the Week 1 game, he just missed.
On extra points, the 35-year-old has been perfect. His six extra-point attempts have split the uprights.
Folk was money in 2019 as well. He was 12 of 12 on extra points and 14 of 17 on field goals. The misses? Two against Dallas in a rainstorm and one the week after he had an appendectomy.
There’s been no wind and no weather the first two weeks of the season, so that excuse is off the books. Folk’s out of appendixes, so that excuse is out, too.
Perhaps it’s mental.
Achord didn’t say it was mental but also didn’t say it wasn’t.
“It’s just each ball is different. It’s like any given play on offense, defense, kicking game,” Achord said. “Any little thing can be different, you just have to approach it the same.”
There’s also a question of how comfortable Folk is in New England. His family is back in Dallas and it has to wear on a person knowing he could be one miss and one good Justin Rohrwasser week of practice from things being over. (Rohrwasser, of course, was the Patriots fifth-round draft pick out of Marshall who is on the practice squad.)
Whether it’s physical or mental, Folk needs to figure it out fast. Three weeks ago expectations were the kicking game wasn’t going to be a big deal in a mediocre Patriots season. But now people have the AFC championship back in their sights and if New England wants to get there, they need Folk of 2019, not 2020.
“The thing he has to go back to and the thing we have to do is the consistency and the operational approach,” Achord said. “That’s what has to be the same. The more you can do that over and over, the more consistent you’re going to end up being.”
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