carney retired last year telling me he has'nt been practicing he's coming in to give brain scan on hartly. not to compete.

I'm sorry, I'd rather beat the hell out of Hartley and shape him up than risk with someone else.

What would we do if another kicker misses later on? Go back to Hartley? Stick it through with what you got.

He needs to be fired already

Here's my gripe - I don't buy that this is nerves. I think it has to do with technique.

Can someone tell me why in the world our coaches always line him up on the right hash mark, instead of straight down the middle like 99% of the other kickers in the league do? Is it to get more trajectory? More power? Is his helmet crooked? Did he fall out of a tree when he was young? What is the deal?

I'm not a special teams coach or anything, but the laws of geometry and common sense tell you, that for an object that collides with your foot, that he should line up dead center and that will give you your greatest margin for error. It lessens the kickers pace of aim and approach on the equation.

Hartley missed because he mis-timed it, or over-corrected. He know he has bring the ball a little bit to the left, even on the shortest field goals. Mixing in the distance of the field goals, the amount with which he has to pace the ball to the left varies.

If he was kicking from the middle, he can actually see that he's properly aligned and kicking it straight, because his aim should be as close to 90 degrees as possible, compared with the lines on the field and also the formation of the blockers in front of him.

And to Coach Payton, I also say there is no sense on kicking on first down. Do you know the Ultimate Fighter motto "Never leave the match in the hands of the judges"? I say "Never leave the game in the hands of the kicker". Unless that is your best option for victory.

So I say unless he's able to kick the ball well from the dead center position, we cut ties with him and go with a more conventional kicker.

Trying to get over this. But it's hard.

I'm a firm believer in having two kickers. One for short one for long. Their accuracy will go up because they are focusing on specific ranges. I know it's considered a waste of a spot but the way things are going we need those points just to scrape by every week and it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon especially with the onslaught of injuries.