Trey Smack had his first rough day as an NFL kicker in the Green Bay Packers’ 31-7 win over the Chicago Bears, missing an extra point early and two field goals in the fourth quarter. Special teams coordinator Cam Achord was not worried when he met the media Tuesday. “He’s got the right mental makeup to trust the process, trust what we’re doing at practice, trust what he did the first four weeks, right? Good contact on the ball and just trust it,” Achord said. “And I think he’s going to be fine. I have no fear about that.”
Achord also saw an upside in when it happened. “That’s the good thing about the bad situation, is it happened in a nice wind, right?” he said. “It was good to have a bad game when you’re winning, so it’s something we can build off of. We talked about it. It wasn’t always going to be perfect. It’s a rookie, whether you’re a kicker or another position, you’re a rookie, there’s going to be a bump in the road.”
Contact, not overcorrecting
Matt LaFleur had suggested that Smack may have overcompensated for the wind. Achord saw it differently. “I think it was more of the foot contact wasn’t there,” he said. “I don’t think he over corrected or anything like that. I just think it didn’t make good contact, and that’s why you saw a totally different kick on the last one.”
He said some growing pains are normal for a first-year kicker who plays outdoors. “If you go back and look at rookie kickers, I’m sure there’s always a growing pain with a rookie kicker, especially outdoor guys. They take the dome kickers out. That doesn’t count, in my opinion,” Achord said. “Their first year, there’s usually going to be a drop off, until their second year you’re like, whoa, wow, he really improved. Well, he just got more reps at it.” He said watching Smack kick in the wind through the spring and training camp, on the practice field and at Lambeau Field, is where the staff’s confidence comes from. “We’ve seen him have not so much a great day, and the next day he’s automatic,” he said.
“That was on me”
Chicago’s long kickoff return came right after Green Bay went up 31-7. Achord took the blame for it. “It was a bad call. I’ll call it what it was, it was a bad call,” he said. “That was on me. I didn’t really make the right call, and then Chicago made a great scheme fit, and that’s kind of what happened. So I got to do a better job right there.” He credited Smack and Nick Niemann for slowing the returner down and making him cut back so the coverage could catch him. The defense then kept Chicago out of the end zone.
He liked how the game started, though. Asked about the physical tackle on the opening kickoff, with Kamal Hadden flying down the field, Achord said that is the point of the first snap. “It’s the first play of the game, and you’re setting the tone for the entire team on that play,” he said. “We’re that joining piece between the offense and the defense, obviously. Any play for us in the kicking game is a tone setter, right? Whether you’re getting the momentum back or you’re keeping the momentum.”
Matthew Golden on punts
With Skyy Moore nursing an ankle injury, Matthew Golden returned punts and had a 17-yard return. “You could tell in his eyes he was ready to go,” Achord said. “He made really good decisions. He was confident going back there, fielding the ball in the air, fielding it off the bounce, and getting vertical.” He added that there was “no hesitation” about putting Golden back there.
Asked about using an important receiver as a returner, Achord said the big collisions mostly come on kickoffs, not punts. “There’s more injuries on the returners in the kickoff, kickoff return, than there’s punt, punt return,” he said. “And you can always fair catch the ball, right? So you can limit the hits by just fair catching if you really want to.” He said the staff works several returners in practice every week and will pick “the best situation for the team” if Moore misses time.
Golden has said he had never returned punts before reaching the NFL. Achord said he called Golden’s college special teams coach, Jeff Banks, after taking the job. “He’s like, yeah, he’s got great ball handling, ball skills,” Achord said. “You go back to spring, to training camp, and you just look at him, like really watch him in unison, you’re like, wow. I think that’s a credit to him, of taking pride in it.”
KaVontae Turpin and Brandon Aubrey next
Sunday night brings the Dallas Cowboys to Lambeau, and Achord called their units “very dynamic.” He said Brandon Aubrey’s line-drive kickoffs make the Dallas coverage team hard to handle, so his return blockers may have to hold their blocks longer when the ball hits the ground. He compared fielding those kicks to a center fielder reading a line drive off the bat: “Do I charge it, do I not charge it? And that split-second hesitation.” His message to returners: “Don’t panic. And whatever decision you make, I’m going to be good with.”
He also praised Cowboys returner KaVontae Turpin. “Turpin’s one of the best in the National Football League,” Achord said. “He’s got the speed, he’s got the vision to get it vertical, and he’s tough to tackle, right? He’s small, but darn, is he quick and he’s elusive.” He said the Packers need “10 not counting the specialist” running to the ball and gang tackling, and he rejected any idea of playing it safe. “I don’t think you can ever call the game scared,” Achord said. “You call the game to win the game.”
Daniel Whelan’s 75-yarder
Achord said Daniel Whelan, who boomed a 75-yard punt against Chicago, continues to show “why he is one of the best punters in the NFL.” The kick was ruled a touchback because of a penalty during the play, and Achord walked through the rule before giving his own view. “If it’s up to me, it’s not a touchback, personally, because the play finished with a tackle in the field of play,” he said. “So don’t penalize the punter for a touchback.” The Cowboys visit the Packers on Sunday Night Football on October 18.
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