Confidence in a kicker is an underrated feeling. Until it’s gone.
Ask the 49ers, who just released Jake Moody after he missed a short field goal and had another one blocked in Week 1.
Ask the Browns, who might have to follow suit with rookie Andre Szmyt, who missed a PAT and a 36-yard game-winning try late in a one-point loss to Cincinnati.
And ask Sunday’s Vikings opponent, the Falcons, whose formerly reliable kicker, Younghoe Koo, struggled last year and then opened this season by missing badly from 44 yards in the closing seconds of last week’s 23-20 loss to Tampa Bay.
Then there’s Kevin O’Connell, 1-0 and seemingly as much a kicker whisperer as he is the highly publicized quarterback whisperer that made him last year’s NFL Coach of the Year.
“The confidence Coach has expressed in me since I first got here is huge,” Reichard said. “He showed it again on Monday keeping me out there.”