Monday, September 27, 1999Pelfrey: Put the blame on me
Kicker takes responsibility for missed FGs
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerCHARLOTTE — Bengals kicker Doug Pelfrey knew the media was coming after Sunday's latest debacle and said, “You need me, right?”
What was newsworthy about this 27-3 loss here to the Panthers was Pelfrey was at the heart of it. He missed three field goals in a game for the first time in his seven-year career, continuing a trend of declining accuracy that started two years ago.
In his first four seasons from 1993-96, Pelfrey was usually, a major reason the Bengals won. But not on Sunday, when he missed field goal attempts of 47, 37 and 30 yards before hitting a 39-yarder with 5:47 left in the third quarter to cut the Panthers' lead to 13-3.
What made the missed kicks even more egregious was that they wasted powerful drives at key moments. The three drives made up 36 plays, 183 yards and 18 minutes.
With those field goals, Cincinnati could have trailed just 13-12 in the middle of the third quarter. Pelfrey came into the day with just 10 career misses from the 40 in.
“I had a good pregame, a good week of practice and a good training camp,” said Pelfrey, who was 2-for-2 coming into the game. “It's been my best year ever. I go out and go 1-for-4. Your guess is as good as mine.”
Pelfrey has a new snapper this year because of the season-ending knee injury to Greg Truitt, and his holder for most of last season, Lee Johnson, was released last December. They had been together five seasons. Holder Greg Myers took the blame for two of Sunday's misses, but Pelfrey won't blame the timing that appears to be lacking with Myers and snapper Steve Bush.
The snap looked high on the 30-yarder in the third quarter that hit the right upright, Pelfrey's shortest miss ever.
“I don't know if it was,” Pelfrey said. “It's hard. Every thing is different this year. It's something we have to work on. We'll get better. Obviously, it can't get much worse than we were today ... I blame myself. I get credit when I make it, and I'll get the blame when I mess up.”
Myers, the starting strong safety, said he messed up two holds, particularly the 37-yarder that was wide left. Pelfrey's 47-yard try on the game's first try also went left.
“I'm not getting it down fast enough,” Myers said. “And I'm not turning the laces away from Doug. I could have done a better job doing that. When you have that visible to him and the wind and everything when he was kicking, it caused it to veer to the left. I left the laces out a little too far. That might have thrown him off. I definitely need to get better at that and allow us an opportunity to make those.”
Pelfrey insisted Sunday wasn't his worst game. He pointed to a 23-10 loss to Baltimore during 1997 in which he missed from 51 and 43 yards and had a 46-yarder blocked. His shortest miss before Sunday was a 33-yarder as a rookie.
“If I make my kicks, we still wouldn't have won the game,” Pelfrey said. “It changes the game, but I think of the Baltimore game and we lost by a closer margin.
Pelfrey went into the 1997 season as the NFL's most accurate kicker at 81.25 percent. Since then, he's dipped slightly at 34-for-49, citing a lack of attempts as a reason. Still, the Bengals appear to back him.
Coach Bruce Coslet was asked after the game if Pelfrey would get cut.
“Are you serious?” Coslet said. “No.”
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