Monday, October 04, 1999Pelfrey continues to struggle
Another missed FG has kicker frustrated
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was probably inevitable. Placekicker Doug Pelfrey, the one Bengal you could rely on for most of this awful decade, has finally contracted acute Bengal-itis.
![[Pelfrey]](/img/photos/1999/10/100499pelfrey_180x148.jpg)
Doug Pelfrey sits on the turf after missing a 33-yard field goal.
(AP photo)
| ZOOM |Pelfrey went 1-for-2 in field-goal attempts Sunday after a 1-for-4 disaster at Carolina last week, and finds himself answering questions about job security.
“Am I worried about me getting cut? No,” the seventh-year Bengal veteran said. “It's a little extreme, to think that two years ago I was the most accurate kicker in NFL history and now people are acting like I suck. People can say what they want, but I'll continue to work hard like I always have.”
Pelfrey's missed kicks are not losing games, as the Bengals are getting blown out each week. But he's an easy target for the fans after misfires like Sunday's 33-yard gimme that sailed wide right. His misses at Carolina included a 30-yarder, the shortest miss of his career.
And the one he did make Sunday vs. the Rams, a 36-yarder, was close enough that the St. Louis bench was waving, “No good.”
In 1996, Pelfrey closed the season with an 81.25 percent accuracy mark on field goals, best in NFL history at the time. By the start of the 1999 season he had dropped to 10th place at 78.9 percent, and is sinking with a 4-for-8 showing (50 percent) this year.
Coach Bruce Coslet was asked whether Pelfrey, the former Scott High and University of Kentucky star, is in jeopardy of losing his job.
“He's who we have right now,” Coslet said. “I think everyone's job is in jeopardy, to tell you the truth. It's just not fair to pick one guy out.”
Pelfrey is laboring with both a new snapper (Steve Bush) and holder (Greg Myers) after spending five straight years with the same twosome in Greg Truitt and Lee Johnson, respectively. But Truitt is injured and out for the year, and Johnson was cut last Dec. 7.
“Everybody wants to know, is it the snap, the hold, the kick? Any way I answer, I lose,” Pelfrey said. “Basically, no mat ter what happens, I need to make the kick. I refuse to get into finger-pointing.”
Said Coslet, “There are a lot of things that have to go right for the kicker.”
Pelfrey admits to some lost confidence. He's searching, as in his rookie year of 1993 when he survived a shaky start (3-of-7 field goals) to hit 21 of his last 24 attempts.
“I was nervous as heck on the first kick today,” he said, “but I made it. But I went 48 for 50 in pregame, I hit nine in a row before the second half started. It doesn't make sense. It's frustrating.”
Pelfrey, as he has in good times and bad, stayed and answered every reporter's question Sunday. The game-winning field goals on consecutive Christmas Eves in 1994 and '95, the slew of Bengals records, including most field goals (29) and points (121) in a season, all ring hollow at the moment.
“Is my confidence shaken? Sure,” Pelfrey said. “Is the team's confidence shaken? I would think so. If not, they'd need to reevaluate. But I think they realize this is a new deal, I mean I've got a new snapper and holder, and I'd had the same one for 6-7 years.
“But I still need to make the kick. Blame me.”
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![[Pelfrey]](/img/photos/1999/10/100499pelfrey_550x452.jpg)
Pelfrey continues to struggle