Every Kick Matters
June 15th, 2020
Discusses rookie season.
It was a weird rookie season for Bucs kicker Matt Gay.
The fifth-round draft pick sure wasn’t boring. Fans got hooked on his booming leg that pounded footballs like a small bomb was set off.
In between, some kicks were excruciating misses, ones that ended up costing the Bucs a win or two.
In appearing on the “Loose Cannons” podcast last week, Gay explained one thing he learned his rookie season was that a missed kick very easily can come back to bite a team.
“Every single kick matters,” Gay said of his rookie learning curve. “In college, they matter but I felt like, the games, you are more likely to see a blowout. In the NFL, I think 75 percent of the games [the difference is] four points or less. So that four points is me.
“Think back to that Giants game. I had two missed PATs. I hit those, and we are winning at the end of the game. That PAT in the first quarter can be the game-winner. That can be the difference.”
Joe found this interesting in that it sure doesn’t appear that anyone told Gay this, not even his kicking coach. The way Gay was talking, it smelled like he learned this on his own.
Things were not always rosy for Gay off the field, as well. He learned how NFL fans take their passions way above and beyond civility, more than college fans might.
Gay mentioned the public would not want to see his DMs or other missives he got on social media after a bad performance.
Gay even mentioned how people were going through his social media pictures and going after folks that were tagged in his pictures, including one where his barber back in Utah was harassed. The barber got a DM from a Bucs fan asking, “How can you cut this loser’s hair?”
There is no way one can condone jackarse behavior like this. Sadly, the only way for Gay to avoid this is making kicks.
That, he has control of.
Also, in the link above, Gay describes how he got absolutely clobbered on a play against Houston, and why the footballs he kicks make such a bazooka-like sound coming off his foot.
“I like to get after it,” Gay smiled.
June 15th, 2020 at 5:50 am
Welcome to the NFL and its crazy azz fans! Short of serious gambling problems, I will never understand why people get so worked up. Start putting food on my table and I will surely jump on board!
I am hoping we see the last of our kicking problems this year. 9-7 might have gotten us into the playoffs. And, what would this offseason have looked like then?!
June 15th, 2020 at 6:19 am
Some inconsistencies can be expected from a rookie kicker. Hope he gets better
at handling the pressure. But when you only score 10 TD’s in 16 second halves of football there is plenty of blame to share in our losses. That’s not good enough. We had to many stalled drives and TO’s last year during the second half of football games.
Gay was a fifth round pick so I am hoping Bucs fan give him fair chance to get adjusted to the league.
June 15th, 2020 at 6:27 am
The kid has a tremendously strong leg, he just needs to master his short game.
June 15th, 2020 at 6:28 am
Welcome to the NFL. If he can’t stand the pressure then get out. Missing PATs is unacceptable and if it continues this year he will be replaced. He had a fair chance last year, any more screw ups and he is gone. Gostkowski is still out there ….
June 15th, 2020 at 6:43 am
Of course Gay knew the importance of every kick a long time ago. Like most, he just lamented a situation and simply reinforced what everyone already knew by saying it.
His numbers by themselves are not so bad; it is when looking at when the kicks had to come, he didn’t come through. Plus, he was bad in batches. So I moreso wonder if he just can’t handle the mental stress.
Here is something I’m sure he also knows: Make the kicks or be gone.
June 15th, 2020 at 6:46 am
Maybe he should drink curse and BS his way thru interviews and lie!!!!!!!!!! It seems that he could then get a pass like the one stale biscuit with all his mistakes, sloppy coaching, and panic moves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yea!!!!!! And wear a funny hat!!!!!!!!! The sheep love that!!!!!!!!!! Then he could make 7 kicks and miss 9 kicks and the sheep will still love him!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 15th, 2020 at 7:17 am
I expect Gay to be much sharper this year. If he’s not kicking every day, especially the short distance kicks, in the swirling winds of RJ stadium he needs to be. The problems the Bucs have with kickers is other-worldly!!
June 15th, 2020 at 7:20 am
“It smelled like the way Gay was talking, he learned this on his own.” Perhaps he had to google it;). I didn’t know the team even had a kicking coach. They need a therapist and/ or exorcist instead.
How does one, especially a kicker, enter the NFL and not know the point average differential at games’ end? I hope he got his mind right because we need clutch kicking to make a serious run!
June 15th, 2020 at 7:49 am
It’s not always the miss at the end or play at the end that causes the loss….but it’s the one noticed the most.
Like Golf…..an early bogey is just as bad on the scorecard as one late.
I forgot about his missed extra points in the NYG game…..I’m sure most everybody else did too…..all we remember is the missed FG.
June 15th, 2020 at 7:52 am
Gay had a good season going until the last game a year. His % was in the 80’s before the Atlanta game. Putting him in the top half of kickers.
June 15th, 2020 at 7:56 am
That’s why I think to be a successful kicker in the NFL you have to have ice in your veins. If you can be emotionally charged in that moment then bad things can happen. I think that’s why Aguayo failed in his attempts. He would get nervous but when you look at a kickers who have been long time successful like Seabass Janikowski, the dude was ice. He didn’t have much of a personality and some of his press conferences were pretty boring. I had heard prior to us drafting Gay that he had some issues and was dealing with depression. Too emotional, hopefully this season he can find a way to calm himself down before kicks. Take a couple Xanax or something if allowed. Back in my day we called them ludes lol.
June 15th, 2020 at 8:37 am
Apparently Gay forgot about his missed chipshot at the end of the Giants game that also would have won the game. His misses against the Falcons cost them that one, and his missed extra points against the Jags could have been costly but the defense bailed him out.
I’m done with him. Hoping the vet comes in and boringly makes all his kicks.
The Gay kicker stinks.
June 15th, 2020 at 8:55 am
Most kickers are conscious of their effect in a game as a point here or there changes the mood of the team, this was similar to the effect JW had when he made a bad decision, or turnover. It is not just one person but the collection of the team, as a team it is important to have a visible goal one which is real and has a finish to it, but when that vision becomes tainted or unclear people then tend to lose focus. For a kicker he has to not feel the pressure or be highly indifferent but deathly focus on what he is trying to accomplish. He can neither get too high nor too low as that will sometimes have a effect on the pattern of sensories he has in his stroke.
June 15th, 2020 at 9:15 am
I’ll never understand why some “fans” on this board, an occasionally the writers, are almost rooting for players to fail. They do the best to twist words to fit the narrative they are pushing. Why not let the guy kick, see what he does, replace him if he fails. You know, the same with every other player on the roster.
June 15th, 2020 at 9:20 am
He was making the point that kicks missed early in a game can cost the team a win. He said specifically if he makes those two extra points in the first half, the Bucs don’t need a field goal at the end.
It’s all spelled out in the podcast linked above.
June 15th, 2020 at 9:21 am
Joe has *never* rooted for a Bucs player to fail.
Except down the road in the 2014 season to secure the top pick for Jameis.
You either play for the playoffs or you play for the draft.
June 15th, 2020 at 10:45 am
Kickers make my blood boil !
June 15th, 2020 at 10:49 am
Really Joe? Don’t you think that click bait title is a bit tone deaf, at best, right now? Pathetic.
June 15th, 2020 at 10:51 am
I’m glad they brought in some competition for Gay. Not really sold on Gay. Wish they would bring in more competition.
June 15th, 2020 at 10:55 am
My reaction was similar to SirClicks, that the title would cause some people to be upset. Not good.
June 15th, 2020 at 11:39 am
He shouldn’t have to deal with nasty DMs. However I would have been ok if Licht handed him a pink slip as soon as the last game ended.
June 15th, 2020 at 12:03 pm
Looks like we found the new whipping boy since Jameis is no longer here. Let’s hope Gay bounces back.
June 15th, 2020 at 2:00 pm
What’s wrong with the title?
June 15th, 2020 at 2:21 pm
He can make 55 yarders. He’ll be ok. I can think of at least two kickers we got impatient with who went on to have very long careers. (O’Donoghue, Bryant) Give him another year
June 15th, 2020 at 10:20 pm
joe – i am pretty sure any player understands they would need to do better and i am sure the coaches told him too. it is unfair to put on the site an opinion based on one clip based on something that happened months ago that the buccaneer coaches who are professional coaches never mentioned to him. they didnt do a good job last year but were always assuming they do nothing and dont even understand basic football or holding people accountable.
June 16th, 2020 at 12:28 am
He makes that end of regulation against the giants jameis would still be a buc @joe
June 16th, 2020 at 9:50 pm
So, we should be happy that he missed that kick. Helped us get rid of Jaymiss and obtain Brady