Teeing it up with Robbie Gould

When done right, Robbie Gould’s job is accomplished in 1.35 seconds or less. That’s the optimal “operation time” from the moment Patrick Mannelly snaps the ball until Gould sends it spinning toward the goalposts.

“How it all starts is, as soon as (holder) Brad (Maynard) lifts his finger to go catch the ball, I start through my sequence,” Gould said, “Those guys have done a great job. The only reason I’ve had a lot of success is because of Pat and Brad. There’s a reason they’ve been around for 12-13 years now and doing the job that they’re doing _ but being the best at their job, too.”

We bring this up because, well, it seems like the Bears’ fifth-year kicker has been relatively ignored throughout this offseason laden with Jay Cutler lust, defensive back injuries, wide-receiving question marks and all the other usual preseason nonsense.

As Gould prepares for his fourth NFL opening day (he joined the Bears early in the 2005 season), he stacks up as the third-most accurate kicker in league history. Gould has converted 110 of 128 field goals in his career and, because the Bears open Sunday at Green Bay, it should be noted he hasn’t missed on the road since Dec. 4, 2007 at Washington. He takes a road streak of 16 in a row into Lambeau.

Gould takes grief from teammates all the time because of his relatively light workload during practice, but he’s being evaluated each time he puts his right foot into a ball.

“We chart every kick, whether it’s a field goal or a kickoff,” Gould said. “We look for hang time and distance on kickoffs, we look for operation time (on placements) and figuring whether it went down the middle third of the uprights or not. It’s huge figuring out those kind of things. Sometimes those numbers can lead to figuring out why you’re missing some kicks or mis-hitting the ball.”

I asked Gould if it’s easy to track whether the kicks go through the middle third of the posts. That led to an impromptu, half-joking plea for the Bears to acquire the latest kicking amenities for Halas Hall’s practice field. Perhaps Gould needs to file some official budget-request paperwork with the people who hold the purse strings?

“The biggest thing is some teams have training posts where they’re, say, six feet across,” he said with a smile. “That’s our mentality, but we chart it on our own without those posts. Hopefully we’ll get those and some nets out here. That’d be real nice.”

"With the Bears, reporting live from Halas Hall, Lindsey Willhite, Daily Herald sports."

LW