Will The Thrill

Rookie jitters in a big game?

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Vikings stressing importance of every kick to rookie Will Reichard: ‘Poised through the noise’

Vikings kicker Will Reichard missed two field-goal attempts — plus a third nullified by penalty — but cleared two others in Sunday’s 27-25 win over the Packers. The rookie sixth-round pick from Alabama is now 21-of-26 on the season.

This was the second time Reichard has missed multiple attempts in a game, the first being his 0-of-2 performance against the Colts on Nov. 3. After that game, Reichard landed on injured reserve with a quad injury and missed the next four games.

Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said Tuesday that Reichard’s injury was not a factor in his missed kicks against Green Bay, which was his fourth game back from injured reserve.

“He’s not injured at all,” Daniels said. “He’s perfectly fine.”

Instead, Daniels said Reichard got too far under the ball on his 57-yard attempt that dropped short and hit the crossbar midway through the first quarter.

On Reichard’s 43-yard attempt in the fourth quarter, Daniels said the young kicker needed to trust his line would hold and give him time. The kick pulled left and hit the upright.

“He felt good about the hit — kind of talking to him after it happened, it just ended up kind of drawing a little bit on him,” Daniels said. “He has a natural draw on all the balls that he does hit. He’s just gotta trust the line. — It was a nice, good, clean hit, just kind of drew on him at the last second.”

Reichard’s third missed kick, which didn’t count against him, and one of his successful attempts came in a bizarre sequence at the end of the first half that saw him attempt three field goals in a row.

His miss came from 55 yards but was nullified by an offsides penalty. He cleared the next kick from 50 yards but was iced by a last-second Green Bay timeout. He then nailed another attempt from the same distance to give the Vikings a 13-3 halftime lead.

Daniels, who’s previously spoken about how hard Reichard took his stint on injured reserve, said Reichard is always tough on himself following a miss because of the impact it has on his teammates.

Daniels has stressed to him the importance of being “poised through the noise” and sticking to a single thought process to survive the high-pressure scenarios, which will only become more prevalent through playoffs.

“As we get into these more tighter games, as you’re building to it, every point is gonna truly start to matter here … so when he does miss that type of kick, he understands what the result is and how it can kind of effect the turnout of the game,” Daniels said. “It doesn’t weigh on him from a mental standpoint, but he does kind of feel it.”

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