Did Greg Zuerlein Get Hurt Again
ATLANTA – Roster-spot competitions normally don't end well for incumbent NFL kickers. They're more disposable than razors.
Greg Zuerlein looked done in 2015. The kicker once dubbed "Legatron" seemed inconsistent beyond 40 yards, and the Rams openly said Zuerlein would compete for his job. Since and so, Zuerlein has endured dorsum surgery and a major groin injury and, oh, past the way, completely reestablished his dominance.
Information technology'south an odd tale. Zuerlein, who is polite merely hesitant in interviews, occasionally has been asked how he did it, how he brought his career back from the brink, but Zuerlein shrugs and revels zero. Maybe he had an injury. Maybe he had technique-related bug. Maybe he had a case of the golf-fashion yips.
Whatever happened, information technology worked. Since the start of the 2016, Zuerlein has been "Mr. Automated" – as tabbed by Rams quarterback Jared Goff – and Zuerlein reluctantly took a spin in the spotlight this month after his 57-thousand field goal in overtime of the NFC championship game sent the Rams to the Super Bowl.
Information technology's been a long journey, from Div. Two college kicking to struggles to the border of a championship.
"Maybe when my career is over, or after this season, I'll remember well-nigh information technology a little, but never in likewise much depth," Zuerlein said Wednesday. "I've never been i to dwell on the past, because y'all don't get anything from that. You tin can learn from your mistakes, that'south true, only dwelling on the past isn't going to exist successful for your mental land, or anything else, going forward."
Zuerlein, again, is a star, and concerns over an injury to his left (non-kicking) foot mostly seem to have subsided. Midweek'south Rams practice was not open to reporters, but during the pre-practice media session, Zuerlein said he would not boot until Friday (per his usual routine), merely that his foot felt fine.
In a Super Bowl expected to be close – Las Vegas had the Patriots at 2.5-point favorites Midweek – Zuerlein could exist a big factor, equally he was in the NFC title game, when his 48-one thousand field goal sent the game to overtime and ready up his expressionless-middle winner that looked like it had another 10 yards of distance.
"I'd lie to you if I said I don't think about it," Zuerlein said. "I do think near it. It was a cool occurrence, something that you dream about from the time you're piddling. To be able to accomplish something like that was very absurd, but apparently that's in the past."
So is 2015, for which Zuerlein no doubt is grateful.
Zuerlein went through two Div. II schools, the Academy of Nebraska Omaha and Missouri Western Country Academy, after the get-go cut its football program, and the Rams drafted him in the sixth round in 2012.
Subsequently great success in 2013 and 2014, when he fabricated lxx of 88 field goal attempts with impressive leg strength, Zuerlein had an atrocious 2015, when he missed 10 of 30 field-goal attempts and ii extra points.
The nadir game in the season finale. The Rams needed a win to finish viii-8, simply Zuerlein missed a field goal in regulation, and so had a potential game-winner blocked in overtime before San Francisco won.
A few months later on, after the Rams moved to Los Angeles, and then-bus Jeff Fisher said he still had confidence in Zuerlein but that he would face contest in preparation camp before the 2016 season. Zuerlein later would say it made him think, "I've only got to compete even harder."
Whatsoever was wrong with Zuerlein, he fixed. Early in 2016 grooming campsite, Zuerlein made a 64-k field goal in a practice at the Coliseum, and soon thereafter, the Rams cut undrafted gratis agent kicker Taylor Bertolet. Zuerlein kept his task, didn't miss a field goal until week 8, and followed that upwardly with a stellar 2017 season in which he made 38 of 40 field-goal attempts and earned first-squad All-Pro honors.
Zuerlein didn't go to finish that season, though, considering a debilitating back injury caught upwardly with him and required surgery. Zuerlein didn't kick during the 2018 offseason program or preseason, and in warm-ups before the second regular-season game, he strained his groin, an injury that price him five games.
The divergence felt palpable without Zuerlein, and not simply because the Rams cut his first replacement, Sam Ficken, and brought in Cairo Santos. Had Zuerlein been lost for the flavor, it's highly doubtful that the Rams would have attempted a 57-yard field goal with the Super Bowl on the line.
With Zuerlein, at that place was no doubt. Even though his foot was sore – he declined to describe the extent – Zuerlein left no doubt on the game-winning kick.
"It looked like it was proficient from 70 (yards)," Rams condom John Johnson said. "We've got the most conviction in Greg. Nosotros knew he was going to brand information technology and it was correct down the centre. That crowd went silent and we won the game."
Will there exist another large moment on Dominicus? Information technology was 17 years ago that New England kicker Adam Vinatieri made a 48-yard field goal every bit time expired to beat the Rams.
Zuerlein has to experience good about the fact that he has fabricated 79 of 91 career field-goal attempts in domed or retractable-roof stadiums, such as Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He has to experience good almost his last game, also, simply merely as quickly has Zuerlein forgot about 2015, he isn't going to dwell on the NFC championship game either.
"Y'all go back to what you always do," Zuerlein said. "But go out there and take your steps and exist confident and calm. That'southward all you can do. You're non going to be thinking most what you did in the past when you're in the present."
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Source: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/30/how-rams-kicker-greg-zuerlein-went-from-job-insecurity-to-super-bowl/
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