I haven't seen anyone post about this yet, and I thought it needed to be acknowledged. so................ I was extremely happy with our new kicker yesterday. It has been a while since I didn't have to HOPE he made a field goal. This kid seems different. Deep kickoffs with no returns, mostly, and dead on at field goal tries. Looks like a 5th round pick spent wisely......so far.............but then every thing looks better after a win.
i agree... that game yesterday would have been much closer had Carpenter been our kicker. Heck, we might have even lost.
He has a nice stroke. It was his first regular season game but so far it looks like they made the right decision.
Was thinking the same thing while watching the game yesterday. Sturgis kicks them arrow straight and they just seem to fly faster. Carp's always seem to sway and flutter in the air. After his first kick, I didn't feel nearly the trepidation I did with Carp the past 2 seasons.
He def looks good so far. But it's early. I really started liking the kid after it was reported that the other st specialists were pretty much ignoring him at the beginning if TC. Saw it for myself at the HOF game. Even my wife felt bad for him. I hope he continues his perfection.
He hasn't missed a single kick in the 5 games he's played in so far, and all of them seem to be right down the middle. You can see why they drafted him and just gotta hope he keeps it up.
that wind yesterday was pretty strong too... if the ball gets slightly off center in it's vertical rotation, it's going to drift. His kicks were knifing through the wind as if it wasn't even there. LOL... the Browns kicker (signed last week) almost missed a PAT, or am I thinking of a different game?
I had absolutely ZERO concern about a miss when he walked onto the field...haven't been able to say that in quite a while.
A 45 and 49 yarder aren't chip shots for your first 2 kicks either, and he drilled them. If Cleveland would've stopped returning kicks 9 yards deep his touchback percentage would've been great too!