By Billy Cundiff Thinks Field Goals Will Improve As Redskins Continue to Gain Chemistry
October 2, 2012 – 5:45 am by Brad Gagnon
Washington Redskins kicker Billy Cundiff might have saved his career with a game-winning field goal in the final moments Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because the veteran kicker was 0-for-3 earlier in that game and had made just five of his first nine attempts this year after a famous miss to end the 2011 season.
But Cundiff says he hasn’t lost self-confidence, and he believes that he’ll begin making more kicks as the team continues to come together.
Billy Cundiff joined Inside the Locker Room on ESPN Radio 980 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the lack of job security in his world, the oft-made comparison to golf and his confidence level.
On dealing with the tentativeness of life as a kicker:
“It’s easier to deal with when you play well. You don’t obviously have near the problems when you make all your kicks. Obviously our situation’s a little bit different than everybody else. We don’t have a playbook. We don’t have a lot of things you have to deal with in that aspect, but we’re very timing-oriented. So we’re working in about 1.3 seconds, so when things aren’t quite the way they should be — because we just haven’t had a lot of work together — then I think the little things get accentuated pretty quickly. So for us, we’re still trying to get on the same page. And we’ll get back on the practice field and we’ll get that done. But I think that nine years in the league, that helps.”
On why kicking is different than golf:
“When it comes to golf, people sympathize and empathize with golfers more because they go out and do it. … But they just don’t have that frame of reference, whereas golf does have that frame of reference. And they know that sometimes you’re in a groove and things are going well, and sometimes you think you’re hitting the ball well and you look at the outcome, and it is nothing like you thought it was gonna turn out to be.”
On still possessing confidence in himself on long kicks:
“Yeah, I definitely do. If you look at my 57-yarder, that was probably my best kick out of the day. I left that, what, about a yard short, and that was kind of into the wind? So for me to put my best effort of the day on a day that really wasn’t my best day, to have that be the longest one, I’ve got plenty of confidence going out there. And I think that as we continue to click as I unit, I think that we’ll start to see the outcome that we’re actually looking for.”
Listen to Billy Cundiff on ESPN Radio 980 here
Tags: Billy Cundiff, NFL, Washington Redskins
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