EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -When the oldest punter in the NFL has a horrible game in his 22nd season, one has to wonder whether his career will be ending soon. How else to explain Jeff Feagles' four straight punts between 28 and 35 yards in the New York Giants' loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night? The 43-year-old Feagles just smiled when asked about the so-called slump, and then held his hand out about a foot apart to explain what went wrong. It had nothing to do with his right leg, which has taken him to the field an NFL-record 343 consecutive games over the last 21-plus seasons and put his name in the record book over and over again. It all had to do with his angles. And Feagles said he was off by about a half-yard last weekend. ``Listen I try to get better like everyone else,'' Feagles said. ``I look at what I did last week and it's a learning experience. The next time I am backed up, I know I am not going to be kicking it 28 yards out of bounds. I'll tighten my line up and get it down there. It was just one of those days, one of those days, and unfortunately we lost the game.'' The Cardinals cashed in on two of Feagles' poor punts, using the short field to score touchdowns. The performance was so bad (seven punts for a 34.4 yard average), Feagles said he even got a call from his son, C.J., who is a freshman punter at North Carolina. ``He was asking me lot of questions and I said: 'You'll learn one day,''' said Feagles, who is averaging 40.1 yards on 26 punts this season. Unlike some of the NFL's current punters who boom it down the field and rely on coverage teams, Feagles is one of the league's few directional punters, along with Brad Maynard of the Chicago Bears. His game is punting geometry 101. He gets the snap, picks an angle toward either sideline and punts the ball downfield around 40 or 45 yards. On a good day, the ball will land just over the sideline and there will not be a return. On the so-so days, the punts land close to the sidelines and the coverage team will pin the returner along the sideline for a short return. The problem last week was Feagles took bad angles. Place-kicker Lawrence Tynes explained it best. He took a two-foot hand towel and placed it on the floor in the Giants locker room on Thursday. He then placed his left foot - which would be Feagles' plant foot - in the center of the towel. ``That's where his plant foot was,'' Tynes said. ``He needed to be here.'' Tynes then moved his left foot to the left edge of the towel. Feagles said for every half-yard the angle improves, it adds about eight yards to the punt. The angles weren't the only problem. In the week leading up to the game, Giants coach Tom Coughlin told Feagles that Cardinals return man Steve Breaston was dangerous and he didn't want him touching the ball. That put pressure on Feagles to get the ball out of bounds, and it multiplied when the Giants offense did little in the second and third quarters, leaving Feagles to punt from deep in his own territory. The veteran also felt he got a couple of poor spots from the officials. ``It's my job to get field position,'' Feagles said. ``The one thing I learned from those situations when you are backed up there, sometimes you have to sacrifice a little more of a chance to get field position. You need a good kick there, 45, 50 yards.'' So instead of aiming directly toward the sideline, Feagles said he might need a deeper punt with 4.5 seconds of hang time and allow the other 10 players to make a tackle. Feagles faces an even bigger challenge this week in Philadelphia with Eagles returner DeSean Jackson. He has returned one punt for a touchdown this season and is averaging 14.5 yards a return. ``He is one of those special athletes who can make a play at any time in the game and you don't want to see the ball in his hands,'' Feagles said. ``He also will sacrifice yards. he'll go backward to try to score a touchdown. If we lose our leverage on coverage, then we'll be in trouble.'' Giants special teams coach Tom Quinn said Feagles only had one poor punt, one that came off the side of his foot. The others were hit well but had bad angles. ``It wasn't like he had completely washed out,'' Quinn said. ``He has had one that has gone off the side of his foot in the past. Probably one a year. This was one, so hopefully, we don't see it again.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. |
