With rookie kicker Nate Freese making 2 of his first 5 attempts at the NFL level, the Lions have a problem… a big problem that is when it comes to their special teams production. And after today’s 24-7 loss at the hands of the Carolina Panthers where Freese missed two of those five total attempts this young season, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell says the team won’t make any rash decisions in terms of their kicker but will also keep their options open (Mlive.com):
“We won’t make any rash decisions, right now, five minutes after the game, 10 minutes after the game,” Caldwell said. “We want to take a look at all of our options and see where we’d like to go from here.”
Even though the team wasn’t ready to make an immediate decision on Freese’s status, Caldwell made it clear the Lions expect much better results from the kicking game.
“One of the things that we have as a goal is to make 100 percent of our kicks,” Caldwell said. “Obviously, every once in a while, you have a long kick that’s an extenuating circumstance. I think that’s an area we have to be able to count on.”
Not that the six points missed in Freese’s attempts would have made a difference in the final score, they could have changed the complexity of the game a little. Plus this the Lions aren’t playing in some mid-major college football conference where you may be able to get away with a sub par kicking game.
As far as available veteran kickers out there? The Lions may soon be issuing a phone calls to Jay Feeley, Alex Henery and/or Rob Bironas.