C ount me as a believer concerning the Dallas Cowboys making itto the Super Bowl (on their home turf) this season, but there isone spot on the team which concerns me. It involves a newcomer to acritical position. His name will certainly be brought up every weekand his initials are D.B.
Oh yeah … Dez Bryant should be an interesting story too.
The D.B. on my mind is David Buehler. Right now he is theleading candidate to be the placekicker for the Cowboys. You’veheard of him before, because he handled kickoffs for the ‘Boys lastyear and kicked well, leading the NFL with 29 touchbacks.
Yet his next field-goal attempt in the NFL will be his first. Myknee-jerk reaction is I would rather have a veteran kicking,because that experience could be the difference in winning a SuperBowl, or another key game or two along the way.
But am I wrong in this way of thinking?
I did some historical number crunching. The average experiencefor kickers of Super Bowl-winning teams is 6.3 years. This averagehas gone up in the past decade thanks to Adam Vinatieri winningfour times.
There have also been five rookies kicking their way to SuperBowl titles, but only once among this group has the newcomer had toprovide a last-second title: Jim O’Brien of the Baltimore Colts in1971 (don’t mention that kick around Bob Lilly).
Other teams in such situations — like the Chicago Bears in 1986and the Dallas Cowboys in 1993 — could have won it all withone-legged, half-blind booters.
But what should the Cowboys do? For too much of the past decade,finding a consistent kicker has been frustrating futility. Rememberthe expensive mistake called Mike Vanderjagt in 2006? I thoughtNick Folk was the answer, but because he got the yips last year,the Cowboys are back to square one this year.
Maybe I’m wrong about how Buehler will do. Reading up on him, Idiscovered that while he was at the University of SouthernCalifornia, he had better bench-press prowess than some of hislinemen teammates, and better 40-yard times than linebackers.
With a kicker however, I’m more impressed with their nervesunder fire than if they’re great athletes. I would like the Cowboysto bring in a veteran or two to test him. Matt Stover isavailable.
Heck, maybe Eddie Murray can come back again to provide somepressure for Buehler.
Hopefully, this pressure will make Buehler, or whoever kicks forthe Cowboys, on the money because I think they’ll need all thepoints they can get when another D.B. enters the picture.
HERO OF THE WEEK
Hats off to The Hawk, who was the only player in the NationalBaseball Hall of Fame Class of 2010, getting inducted on Saturday.Instead of taking a hat off however, maybe I should just stumble tothe ground. This isn’t a knock on the slugger, just a roundabouttribute to his swing.
Dawson had an uneven batting stance, shifting his right footback. It’s a stance I liked so much, I tried using it in my ownstance in baseball and softball, but it didn’t work. While Dawsonused that stance to hit ‘em to Waveland Avenue when he was aChicago Cub, I sometimes hit the ground, tripping over myselftrying to mimic his swing!
JERK OF THE WEEK
Maybe I’m guilty of jumping on top of a pile of an overblownstory, but what the former Lukfin standout did in defying thefootball social structure — the rookie carrying the pads of the vet— rubbed me the wrong way. I’d be willing to bet when Bryant was atOklahoma State, he made a freshman carry out such a tedious task ortwo.
E-mail: rickk@news-journal.com
Longview News-Journal: – Kretzschmar: Kicking around Cowboys’ chances with young kicker
